Catholic Church must change
CLERGY should not have to be celibate — it’s not natural, and it’s a key factor in the incidence of child abuse.
It should also be illegal for priests not to report allegations of abuse made in the confessional to police.
If they harbour abusers, then they should face criminal charges.
Such recommendations from the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse must be implemented as soon as possible.
The churches, and in particular the Catholic Church, must be forced to do things very differently.
We can’t rely on them to do the right thing unless they are forced to by law.
One of the key recommendations is for the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference to ask the Holy See to consider introducing voluntary celibacy for diocesan clergy.
This is critically important; many other royal commissions and academic studies into this matter have found mandatory celibacy is a major precipitating risk factor for child sexual abuse.
This was one of the findings of an RMIT University study into dozens of reports into child abuse over three decades.
Don’t expect the church to act on this; they’ve always denied any link.
The Catholic Church is also very resistant to forcing priests to report details of child sexual abuse received during confession.
The commission’s report states confession has been a forum where both victims and perpetrators have disclosed sexual abuse in the past.
So it seems absolutely unbeliev- able that president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart, has so far called for protections for confession to be respected.
“Confession in the Catholic Church is a spiritual encounter with God through the priest,” Archbishop Hart said back in August.
“It is a fundamental part of the freedom of religion, and it is recognised in the law of Australia and many other countries.
“It must remain so here in Australia,” he said.
He said he’d even go to jail than break the confessional seal.
This stance is tantamount to the church continuing to protect and harbour paedophiles. As the commission’s report makes very clear, the importance of protecting children from sexual abuse means there should be absolutely no exemption for religious confessions.
Hart’s stance makes a mockery of the Catholic Church’s Trust Justice and Healing Council, which also argued for the continued “seal of confession” to remain.
Clearly, the Catholic Church has learnt little from this process.
Religious freedom should not give priests the freedom to sexually abuse children, or protect others who do so.
Every time it’s suggested that Muslim sharia law is followed in this country before our own laws, there is widespread outrage. This is no different. The Catholic Church’s religious practices should not come before laws designed to protect the most vulnerable in our society.
The entire purpose of the confessional is to absolve and pardon someone for their sins: to offer, as one priest put it, “divine forgiveness and healing”.
Why does the church want to absolve paedophiles?
You might think they might want them to burn in hell for eternity.
It is now up to the government to ensure all of the recommendations are acted upon.
Other recommendations include a national memorial for child sex abuse survivors and a national strategy to prevent future abuse, including appointing a federal minister for children’s issues.
Let’s start this important work now, not wait for the churches to react and respond.
Vulnerable children deserve better.