Only a religion would value predatory paedophiles above innocent children.
The Catholic Church is fighting a Royal Commission into the Clergy that will force priests to report crimes against children to the authorities. This includes the confession of paedophiles. The Church has responded to the Royal Commission by citing that:
‘Confession in the Catholic Church is a spiritual encounter with God through the priest and must remain in-tact’.
Of course, the Church then goes on to report that any child abuse reported OUTSIDE the confessional will be reported. Pfft. As if. As far as I can see, the church seems to have more of a vested interest in protecting paedophiles than protecting its children.
The Royal Commission report cites that:
‘There should be no excuse, protection nor privilege for priests that fail to alert police because the information was received in the confession.’
So the Catholic Church is putting more importance on the confession, then protecting those most vulnerable in our community. These abused children (and there are thousands of them, right here in Australia) grow up to be damaged human beings that never fully recover from the traumatic experiences endured by the very people their families encouraged them to trust the most in the world.
And no it is not a separate issue.
If the Church dealt with these priests the harshest penalties possible, throwing them out of their churches and prosecuting them under the full extent of the law, perhaps we wouldn’t have gotten this far down the road.
SHAME ON YOU CATHOLIC CHURCH. YOU ARE DESPICABLE.
Any sane person that would hear about a child being abused and was in a position to do something about it – would. Clergy with the attitude that they will ‘Take the information to the grave’ is a sin against children.
Crimes against children are not a forgivable sin.