Skip to main content

FSSPX.News: Australia: Law Against Secrecy of Confession Takes Effect

Image
By

 +

JMJ

 So - this is an important point in this crisis of the Church - the Seal of Confession is now grounds for prosecution and therefore persecution.

All that has to happen is someone to 'fake' a confession and see if it is reported to the authorities.

P^3

 

Courtesy of FSSPX.News

Australia: Law Against Secrecy of Confession Takes Effect

November 27, 2022
Source: fsspx.news

 
 
Western Australian Parliament

The law applies to Western Australia, the largest of the Australian states. Entering into force on November 1, 2022, it obliges ministers of religion to report all cases of child abuse, including those for which the information obtained would have been within the framework of the Sacrament of Penance.

These changes are part of new laws introduced by the government of Mark McGowan, currently Premier of Western Australia. However, this law was passed in October of 2021.

The law specifies that priests will be considered culpable if they failed to report the fact that the information was revealed to them during the administration of the Sacrament of Penance.

The omission of such a report is a crime in this Australian state – as in many countries of the world – punishable by a maximum penalty of $6,000 AUD.

A Growing Restriction

Archbishop Timothy Costelloe of Perth defended the secrecy of confession as essential to the Catholic Faith before a Western Australian parliamentary inquiry.

Acknowledging the “appalling history” of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church, the archbishop said he understood why people were appalled by his insistence on maintaining the principle of absolute confidentiality of the sacrament as practiced in the Catholic Church.

“But,” he explained, “sins are not confessed to the priest, but to God. … The priest therefore has neither the right nor the authority to reveal anything that happens in this intimate encounter with God.… Making illegal the free practice of an essential aspect of the Catholic faith seems to me something that modern secular societies have always understood to be beyond the limits of their authority.”

The Minister of Child Protection, Simone McGurk, said the government is committed to implementing the recommendations of the Royal Commission on Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse published in 2017.

But the parliamentarians willfully ignored a recommendation from the state’s permanent legislative commission, dating from September 2020, asking that sacramental confession be excluded from the scope of the law on the denunciation of abuses committed on minors.

Other States Concerned

Western Australia is not the first Australian state to issue such legislation. It is the fifth Australian state – out of six – to have launched the offensive against the secrecy of sacramental confession after Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia, the Australian Capital Territory, and finally, in September 2020, the State of Queensland.

(Source : InfoCatolica - FSSPX.Actualités)
Illustration : Nachoman-au, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Catholic Church and the Rule of Law- Part II: Dr. John Lamont

By
+ JMJ This is the second article from Dr. Lamont from his lecture given in May 2014. P^3 Source Part A: Society of St. Hugh of Cluny Source Part B: Society of St. Hugh of Cluny 8 May2014 The Catholic Church and the Rule of Law- Part II By John Lamont To understand how the Jesuit conception of obedience departed from earlier conceptions, it is helpful to compare it with the teaching of St. Thomas on obedience. The fundamental difference between the two is that St. Thomas considers the proper object of obedience to be the precept of the superior (2a2ae q. 104 a. 2 co., ad 3). Obedience that seeks to forestall the expressed will of the superior does not bear on what the superior wants or thinks in general, but only on what the superior intends to command. St. Ignatius’s lowest degree of obedience, which he does not consider to be virtuous, is thus what St. Thomas considers to be the only form of obedience. St. Thomas holds that St. Ignatius’s alleged higher forms of o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin - July 6, 1988

By
There has been some discussion (read lots) about the term 'Conciliar Church'. I have posted this letter written by the Superior General and District Superiors of the SSPX after the 1988 Consecrations. Of particular interest is that the 'Conciliar Church' being referred to as a system. My paraphrase would be that the SSPX regards the 'conciliar Church' as an error within the Church. Source Open Letter to Cardinal Gantin Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops
Post a Comment
Read more

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

By
+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3
Post a Comment
Read more

Rome and the SSPX - Version 2026 Part 6b: Principles and Rules for Surviving this Crisis of the Catholic Church (Principle 1)

By
 + JMJ Principle 1: Realize that something is amiss in the Catholic Church The world in which I had my Traditional Awakening, is one in which practically anything pre-Conciliar such as liturgy, doctrinc, and even dogmas are either suppressed, ignored or re-framed to be acceptable to the ‘world’. What is more, the people adhering to these pre-conciliar teachings and liturgy are persecuted by other members of the Catholic Church. The things that non-Trads say about Trads can be quite extreme. For example, accusations against Traditionalists include that they are: A revival of the Jansenists (link) , Schismatics, Heretics, Uncharitable, Lefebrists Radicals Integrists When one group of Catholics is persecuted by the others for simply wanting to live as Catholics before them did for generations … well something is wrong. Further, we need to realize that when what was previously condemned is now promoted and what was previously promoted as the trut...
Post a Comment
Read more

Forget the Reformation - It is time for Abrogation - Louie Verrecchio

By
Mr. Verrecchio has pointed out one solution to this crisis that is a dream of many Traditional Catholics of my acquaintance: The complete obliteration of the Novus Ordo Missae. If this were to occur, undoubtedly a revolt would occur within the Church, but the battle lines would be much clearer.  I assume that a lot of material heretics would make the transition to being formal heretics. P^3 Prayer Penance Patience Courtesy of Louie Verrecchio A recent article by Fr. Thomas Kocik on the New Liturgical Movement website,  Reforming the Irreformable? , is getting some well-deserved attention in traditional circles. (Do yourself a favor and read it in its entirety if you haven’t already.)
Post a Comment
Read more