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The confession is ultimately between me and God, the priest is just there to facilitate my reconciliation with The Lord. They can try to subpoena God, but I don't think He will heed the demands of President Macron, especially since Mr. Macron doesn't exactly go out of his way to heed the demands of Our Lord.

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An ongoing and difficult discussion in Australia

One of the casualties of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse was the confidentiality of the Catholic Sacrament of Penance — commonly called ‘the Seal of Confession’. The Catholic bishops who responded to the Commission were unable to convince the commissioners that the seal of confession should continue to be respected, at least in some circumstances. As a result of the recommendations of the Royal Commission, now in a majority of Australian states and territories when a priest in administering the sacrament becomes aware that a child has been sexually abused, he must bring such an incident to the attention of the police.

This has placed the Catholic clergy in a difficult situation. On the one hand, they will incur automatic excommunication if they breach the inviolability of the seal of confession, even in cases of child sexual abuse. On the other hand, they will face judicial penalties and even imprisonment if they do not notify the police of any incidents of child sexual abuse, even if such incidents have only been revealed under the seal of confession.

To escape the horns of this dilemma, I have heard of some priests who have stated that they will no longer ‘hear confessions’ — administer the Sacrament of Penance. In other cases, some priests have stated that they will not grant absolution — an integral part of the Sacrament — to a penitent involved either as a perpetrator or a victim in child sexual abuse unless such a penitent agrees to repeat the information to the priest outside the confessional context. By this strategy the seal of confession will not be violated when the priest refers the incident to the police. But, of course, the penitent may refuse to cooperate with this strategy and the priest will then remain caught on the horns of the dilemma.

https://www.eurekastreet.com.au/article/the-plenary-council--restoring-the-third-rite

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