After the publication last week of a devastating independent report which concluded that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy, there is now going to be a law wherein Catholic priests must report all child sexual abuse allegations to police, including if they hear about it in the secrecy of the confession box, reports The Guardian.
In the Catholic Church, the seal of confession is sacrosanct and it cannot be broken under any circumstances and the priest must take the confession to his grave, however, the French interior minister after reprimanding France’s top bishop who said that the secrecy of the Catholic confessional was “above the laws of the Republic”, now could be forced to divulge this information based on the recommendation of the commission.
There is anger in France that at least 330,000 children were victims of sexual abuse by Catholic clergy over the past 70 years, and that the crimes were covered up in a “systemic way” by the church. Though the French Catholic church expressed ‘shame’ after the report, it again went back to its old ways, when France’s top bishop, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, had initially expressed “shame and horror” said, the church and its priests will not inform police of any child abuse cases learned about during the sacrament of confession.
Moulins-Beaufort is the head of the Bishops’ Conference of France and he said, “The secrecy of confession is a requirement and will remain a requirement – in a way, it is above the laws of the Republic. It creates a free space for speaking before God.”
However, the French interior minister Gérald Moussa Darmanin summoned Moulins-Beaufort and he made clear that professional secrecy – including that of the Catholic confessional – did not apply to disclosures of potentially criminal cases of sexual violence against children, which priests were obliged to report to the police and justice system.
Following the meeting, De Moulins-Beaufort the top representative of the Vatican issued a statement asking for forgiveness from people offended by his comments last week.
President Emmanuel Macron, said he will not tolerate any attempts to subvert French law, and his spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, had said, “Nothing takes precedence over the laws of the Republic in our country,”.
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