Greg Daly
The Irish Church’s safeguarding advisory body has rowed back on previous advice that priests should not inform State authorities about incidents of child sex abuse disclosed during Confession, instead pointing out that canon and civil law differ on this issue.
The National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church had advised in their 2016 guidelines that “all suspicions, concerns, knowledge or allegations that meet the threshold for reporting to the statutory authorities (apart from those received in the Sacrament of Reconciliation) will be reported”.
However, it has now clarified that while it gives guidance about what priests may report in line with canon law, it does not advise priests against reporting allegations heard in Confession.
“The National Board’s guidance requires the reporting of allegations that meet the threshold to the civil authority agencies,” a spokesperson said.
“The National Board is required to have regard to the doctrine of the Church and therefore provides guidance about dealing with allegations which may be disclosed in confession in line with canon law.
“The Board does not advise priests not to report allegations to the civil authority agencies.”
Quoting the revised paragraph from Safeguarding Children Policy and Standards, the spokesperson continued: “All suspicions, concerns and allegations of child abuse must be reported to the statutory authorities through the reporting procedure outlined in Guidance 2.1A. Canon law requires that there is an exception to this rule, which is if abuse is disclosed during the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”