Dear Editor, Greg Daly is to be commended for his analysis as “unsustainable and probably unconstitutional”, the recommendations of the Australian Royal Commission to compel priests to break the seal of Confession where child sexual abuse is disclosed (IC 17/08/2017).
His interview with Teresa Devlin, CEO of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland (NBSCCCI) on improvements to child protection policy and practice in Ireland, referred to Ms Devlin’s having been invited to give evidence to the Australian Royal Commission, but did not mention that during her testimony, available online, she described as “chilling” the fact that some people consider the seal of Confession to be more important than saving a child from abuse.
There are problems with this approach however. It would be next to impossible to draft suitable laws and implement them fairly; no evidence exists that such laws would achieve their stated aim and most serious of all is that the commission’s recommendation completely misunderstands the Sacrament of Confession and takes a completely secular approach.
Confession is one of the seven sacraments of the Church, instituted by Jesus Christ. It is a direct spiritual encounter with God through the priest and all that is said there remains “sealed’ by the sacrament, not just the confessing of sins. One of the Canon Law principles of the sacrament is that all information gained in the confessional should be regarded as not having been gained at all (CCL 983-984).
The Church’s current child protection practice is vastly improved from the past, but the use of criminal sanctions to force priests to break a sacramental seal, in the name of improving child protection practice, is not just a fundamental breach of religious freedom but betrays what God himself has entrusted to the Church through ordained priests. The NBSCCCI must be reminded of this.
Yours etc.,
Catriona Rooney,
Belfast,
Co. Antrim.