CHURCH AND CIVIL LAW ARE AT ODDS

UNDER Irish mandatory reporting legislation, ‘mandated persons’, such as medical professionals, youth workers, members of the clergy and teachers, have a legal responsibility to report suspected child abuse to authorities.

Yet in a guide provided to the clergy by the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children, a very specific clause stipulates: ‘It is mandatory that all allegations of abuse are passed on in the correct way, apart from those that are received during Confession. The same structure exists in every Church body in Ireland.’

Another guide provided by the same authority stresses ‘the Seal of Confession is absolute’.

When the law was going through the Oireachtas, Alan Shatter, then-justice minister, said mandatory reporting would apply ‘regardless of any internal rules of any religious grouping’.