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Irish Priests face five years in jail if they fail to report child abuse

Confessional box will no longer be sacred in eyes of the law

CATHAL DERVAN,

IrishCentral.com Staff Writer

Published Thursday, July 14, 2011, 7:13 AM

Updated Thursday, July 14, 2011, 1:53 PM

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Irish priests will be jailed for up to five years if they fail to report child abuse to police

Irish priests will be jailed for up to five years if they fail to report child abuse to police – even if they are told of it in the confessional box.

The government is pushing through new legislation in the wake of the damning report on abuse in the Diocese of Cloyne.

The latest report highlights a major cover-up in the Cork diocese which found the bishop of Cloyne ignored church guidelines that all suspected cases be referred to police.

The new laws will give Irish courts the right to jail any priest who withholds information relating to child abuse, even if he hears it in confession.

Under canon law, priests face excommunication from the Catholic church if they reveal anything they hear in the confessional box.

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Doctors and lawyers are also covered under the new laws despite professional oaths of patient and client confidentiality.

Ireland’s Minister for Justice Alan Shatter vowed to introduce the new laws as quickly as possible after the Cloyne report highlighted how abuse allegations made as far back as the 1960s were covered up at the very highest levels in the County Cork diocese.

The report from a commission led by Judge Yvonne Murphy outlined that:

- Bishop John Magee was the person primarily responsible for the diocese’s failure to report abuse claims

- Dr Magee continually breached agreed child protection guidelines over a period of 13 years between 1996 and 2009

- Nine out of 15 alleged abuse cases reported to the diocese between 1996 and 2005 were not referred to police.

The report also revealed that Bishop Magee came under investigation for alleged inappropriate behavior with a former altar boy but the Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to press charges following a police inquiry.

The report is also critical of a lack of police activity in three cases.

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49 Comments

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rainbowbrew | Jul 20, 2011, 05:02 PM EDT

Oh boy now the Irishj gocernment is going to create a bunch of matrys when actually they are just as guilty as the abuser. Please though help set an example becasue we have the problem in spades over here in the USA. Thank you Ireland. I wondr why the priests are upset all they have to do is go to confession and their sins will be washed away and that should count for telling on a bad guy. Anoterh priest will be happy to give him 30 hail marys for going against the vatican, which is turning out to be quite the little nest of vermon.

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biddyerly | Jul 17, 2011, 09:59 PM EDT

Congratulations to The Irish Government on their stand! It's about time we protected our children from the abuse of the many pedophiles including Priests that roam our country. This is a chance for the Priests and Bishops of Ireland to "do the right thing", ....the days of brushing everything under the carpet, is OVER!

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Collette2 | Jul 17, 2011, 08:57 PM EDT

A great comment eiriamch, a sense of justice is now truly seeping through not only from the Irish aspect, hopeully it will go out ino the world. miamicanes: They know whose who in the confessional don't worry. How do you think they've known who to "pass around", including women. As far as priest's go, they seek out compassionate brothers, who know doubt has his own issues, not necessarily the same ones. In other words, the black kettle forgiving the black pot for getting burnt.

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miamicanes | Jul 17, 2011, 09:51 AM EDT

I thought when someone goes into the confessional box there is a screen where the priest does not know who is confessing to him. Does this mean the priest has to come out of the confessional box to see who it was and then report him or her. And then again what if a mentally ill person confesses to a killing or crime that he or she didn't do.

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eiriamach | Jul 16, 2011, 09:47 AM EDT

Collette2, with the current split between the Irish government and the Vatican, Rome does not dare issue another directive to the Irish bishops. It is no longer "highly embarrassing" to be overturned by Rome; it's honorable to have done the right thing even if it means disobedience to Vatican superiors. Under natural law and the autonomy of conscience, everyone has a moral obligation not to obey unjust laws-- and that includes unjust canon law. With a child abuser in confession, a priest need only assign as penance to report his crime to the Gardai either on his own or through the intermediary of the confessor, and then the priest must follow through. Congratulations to the Irish government for coercing obedience to civil law. No one is above the law, and canon law, along with smug Vatican officials, will adapt to this long-overdue turn of events.

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Collette2 | Jul 15, 2011, 08:18 PM EDT

We will never see this taking off, Canon Law,(not civil law) claimed the Vatcan some time ago, where allegations and punishment are handled within the church, "must be meticulously followed" and any bishop who tries to go outside Canon Law(note again not civil law), would face the "highly embarrassing" position of being overturnd on appeal by Rome, Associated Press Dublin. It speaks volumes for not only Magee, but bishops around the world, and we have already seen that. Nothing changes or will, too many backs to cover.

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Bocktherobber | Jul 15, 2011, 05:50 PM EDT

All this talk of confession is irrelevant. The law isn't about priests. It's about people withholding relevant information on crimes, whether that information is gained in confession, in the doctor's surgery or anywhere else. All Irish citizens will be required to disclose knowledge of crimes, no matter where they obtained that knowledge, including confession. Should they choose to reject the law of the land, they will have to face the consequences. Rome law applies to Rome. Ireland is a republic, and our law applies here.

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eiriamach | Jul 15, 2011, 04:51 PM EDT

Colliegirl, I just now read your 1:27 PM reply to mine of 8:39 AM, and I truly cannot believe that you are female at all, but probably just another RCC zealot intent on defending the indefensible. Yes, I know about the sacramental seal, but the point is that priests and bishops use it to avoid giving evidence on crimes they know about, and they use it also to intimidate victims and witnesses who habitually obey the priest because they think he has some special moral authority. Does a nine-year-old boy know that he is still free to tell the Gardai what he has told "in confession" about being sexually molested by a priest, maybe even the priest he is confessing to? The Irish and US reports also frequently mention that the abusers have brought the children into their bedrooms by offering them special opportunities for "confession." The Irish government will no longer tolerate priests' secrecy about sexual abuse of children, even when they have heard about it only in confession. Why do you think anyone should tolerate such secrecy? Why do you try to persuade anyone that the problem of clerical abuse is not a huge problem?

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eiriamach | Jul 15, 2011, 04:30 PM EDT

Colliegirl ("girl"? Are you old enough to be posting on the Internet? Sluts and pre-teens call themselves girls, but women rarely apply this word to themselves), Kincora's words misrepresented the dimensions of the clerical abuse problem by contrasting it with sexual abuse of children "in the home." The apparent intention was to suggest that parents rape their own children more often than priests rape children, and such a claim would be demonstrably false. You can split hairs about what-all "in the home" actually includes, but the fact remains that Roman Catholic clergy have abused an appalling number of children entrusted to their care over the decades, indeed for centuries. Parents have good reason to be outraged about it, and most people have little tolerance for minimizing its moral impact.

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Tomassotucson | Jul 15, 2011, 02:03 PM EDT

Do you believe that the bishops should be held accountablefor their past actions? Do you feel comfortable knowing that these same people are in comple control of the Catholic Church?

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Colliegirl | Jul 15, 2011, 01:41 PM EDT

bromeliads, What breach of confidentiality did the pope make. What did he reveal that he could only have known from confession and in no other way? And are you aware that the penitent can give permission to the priest to reveal something that was confessed?

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Colliegirl | Jul 15, 2011, 01:37 PM EDT

eiriamach, abuse in the home includes abuse by other family members such as siblings, uncles, and cousins. By limiting your figures to fathers you are juggling figures to make a point. Try comparing abuse by religious persons to abuse by others such as teachers, medical personnel, youth club leaders, physicians, etc. Any position in which a person with this proclivity will come in contact with children or teens offers an opportunity to abusers. I disagree that religious professionals are more likely to abuse children than are others. The fact that some priests, supposedly committed to God, did such a terrible thing makes it more shocking and a betrayal of the trust of us all. The bishops who covered it up should never have done so and were criminally ignorant to believe the priest's promise of repentance.

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Colliegirl | Jul 15, 2011, 01:27 PM EDT

"How many times do you read of victims and their family members saying that the bishops and priests they reported the abuse to encouraged them to re-tell their stories in confession, under a sacramental seal? If they were lured into doing that, they gave the priest or bishop an excuse for never speaking about the crime to law enforcement officials." You totally misunderstand or misrepresent the concept of the seal of confession. Even if the sin is confessed, if the priest also hears of it outside of the confessional he is free to talk about it, just not use anything he has heard exclusively in confession. Also, a person cannot confess another person's sin! The fact that a VICTIM, not the abuser, retells what happened to him in the confessional doesn't put it under the seal of confession. And you say the victims already told their stories to a bishop or priest outside of confession. What they had already told doesn't come under the seal of confession.

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eiriamach | Jul 15, 2011, 11:28 AM EDT

kincora writes, "only a small amount of child sexual abuse is caused by priests. By far the greatest amount is caused in the home." Kincora's statement is false, according to the SAVI Report, available on the Internet (Use a search engine to find it). Irish physicians surveyed patients who were victims of sexual abuse. According to their report, "Fathers constituted 2.5% of all abusers with clerical/ religious ministers or clerical/ religious teachers constituting 3.2% of abusers." Children are safer at home with their fathers than in church or rectory with priests. The report also helps explain why so few victims report the abuse to Gardai (and therefore why it's necessary to have laws requiring adults to report their knowledge of abuse).

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bromeliads | Jul 15, 2011, 10:52 AM EDT

What does the pope say about his breach of confidentiality for the seal of confession?

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