Catholic row over probe into confession

[Guest Nicole]

Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne Denis Hart said yesterday the sanctity of what was mentioned to a priest during the sacrament of confession was ‘inviolate in the Catholic Church throughout the world’. Picture: Josie Haden

The child abuse royal commission will collide with the Catholic Church over the confidentiality of the confessional when it holds a public inquiry into the disproportionately high numbers of abusive priests.

With evidence before the commission suggesting that as many as 13 per cent of those in some Catholic orders may be perpetrators, the commission will hold a three-week hearing in February to investigate what has led to this level of abuse and ­governed its cover-up.

Evidence gathered in case studies, submissions and private hearings to date has led the commission to target several pillars of the church during the hearing, including the role of the Vatican, canon law, celibacy and the use of secrecy.

It is the confessional, where an individual privately reveals his sins to a priest in return for absolution, that is likely to prove the most contentious.

While church leaders have conceded celibacy and an organisational structure that provided priests with unquestioned authority may have led to child abuse, they are expected to hold the line on the sanctity of the confessional during February’s hearing.

This will likely place them at odds with the commission, which this week published a ­report criticising the Jehovah’s Witnesses for using Christian doctrine to avoid reporting ­admissions of abuse to police.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/in-depth/royal-commission/catholic-row-over-probe-into-confession/news-story/ae5fe6a872c5c5b28d4dc47da262a23f