Priests will to go to jail rather than break the seal of the confessional

I agree with barneyjo.I believe that this type of action taken by the priest is not uncommon.He will give absolution to the penitent on the condition that he turns himself in to the authorities.

Then jail em. They deserve it, to think its ok to protect a fellow priest or pedophile over that of a child (who will NEVER recover from the trauma) is trully evil. Lock them up with the murderers and that should help clean up a lot of the priests that feel 'duty bound' to fellow rapists. Its no wonder the RC church has lost so many of its flock. Its nothing but hypocrisy!

glorybe: You misunderstand my point entirely. I do not condone priests that protect one another when a suspected crime has taken place, nor do I agree or disagree that the Irish Government has a right to require a priest to report a crime. Frankly, its not for me to decide. I do however understand the difficulty of Father Hoban's situation, which you obvious do not, and I admire Hoban's courage in sticking to his convictions, even to the point of risking the possibility of jail time. Whether he is ultimately found to be right or wrong I'll leave to the Irish authories to determine. I would also like to suggest that you take the time to exactly read what people have said here. It may spare us all from your pompous and groundless quasi-religious diatribes.

Its not rocket science - make a absolution conditional on a voluntary confession to statutory authorities and apply the sacredoetal seal of confession on that basis and on that basis only. if the voluntary confession is not forthcoming then surely the sacredoetal seal need not apply and therefore it should not mitagate against a priest speaking out¬!!

MsGail....you're supporting the evil RCC. No man has the right to make you confess your sins to him or make you tell the authorities. Only God hears your heart..no mere man has the ability to change water to wine and bread into flesh. It is not given to any man by a vow. The only person able to that is you, in your belief system, when you recieve communion and it is in your Holy Power to believe Christ is there in both species, you for your self,to consecrate. There is No magic of someone else doing this for you. This is Blasphemy.The RCC has filled you with unbiblical lies.

Mayoman...you have been so generationally brainwashed you admire this eviltrait in a mere man. You should be ashamed that you do not use the brain that God has given you. But you listen to a person so evil that he makes you think it is right. That is the devils work, he is cunning and smart and has decieved you along with the masses for millenium(s). But you KNOW NOW and must not be decieved anymore. Ask God to help you and HE will.

The seal of confession debate is a red herring in the Irish clergy sex abuse scandal. Father Hoban and his colleagues would far better serve the faithful by examining how it is they have stayed silent for so long in what is the largest scandal in the Church in the past 500 yeras. And really, how many priests who abuse children have come forward in confession? What's needed is real, determined action on the part of Pope and priests to give up the cleric over child preference and a real committment to the protection of children and the seeking of justice.

This idea of "seal of confession" is the biggest pot of BS that has kept the people from going directly to God with their sins. This is an evil thing, "confession" to a mere man. It is so that the priests can KNOW what's going on in your lives and take care of it.. their way....not God's way. This is a "man made" church" to be gotten rid of as fast as you can run away from it. Your very soul depends on leaving. They want you to think they are better than you, when they are so evil it isn't even a thought to pass your mind that they could be doing this for themselves.The evil is interred in their bones(as Shakespere would say)I say it also, having left this evil place over 10 yrs ago. You are not using the minds that God has given you, if you listen anymore to their garbage.

if this works for a Catholic priest, will it also apply to a Muslim iman who learns from a member of his flock that he participated in the bombing of the local train station?

A priest can require a penance that includes confessing to civil authorities. If that penance is not done, the offender can be denied sacrements. The priest does not have to reveal secrets of the confessional, but the denial of sacrements should bring attention to the evil doer and bring the spotlight upon him or her.

I am sorry but these guys are provving that they hide pediphiles and want to keep hising them. I would suggest a divesting of Ireland from the catholic church and create your own. the catholics having been taking money away from the irish for too long and now will not even atone nor help. Seems that the vatican is still a cult from the 1st and 2nd century. I can understand the secrecy thing but hey these guys they are protecting are the worst of the worst. No wonder so many priests got away with it. All they had to do was confess and everything was back to normal. SICKO sicko.

Despite what any of us may believe concerning the Seal of Confession, and whether any government has the right to open that seal, and thus empower and force priests to rat out the Faithful that confess their sins; I nonetheless repect and admire Father Hoban's courage.

Yet another reason the RC Church in Ireland is fading fast and will cease to exist.

I am mindful of the moral attachment priests have to the confessional seal but surely there is a higher mortality - the protection of innocents from soul-destroying crimes committed by the very institution claiming the seal of silence under Canon Law. Is there not something truly perverse about this? What of the serial killer who also happens to be a "good" Catholic (no, I'm not being ironic, there have been many)and regularly confesses his murders to his favorite priest. At what point does the seal of confession break down. At what point does the priest become complicit in the murders, if not an indirect participant? I recognize that this is not a simple black and white issue but it is a bit galling to read that these priests will continue to protect pedophiles in their midst, allowing their crimes to continue. It is instructive to note that many of the greatest mass murderers of the 20th century were Catholic, often raised in strict/devout Catholic homes. To mention just a few: Hitler, Himmler, Goebbels, Von Pappan, Goering (his mother) - and outside Nazi Germany, Mussolini, Franco (Spain), Salazar(Portugal), Pinochet(Chile) - to name just a few.

Don't inderestimate the power of Romeand the Roman Catholic church. They can all hide behind the confessional and continue to bugger children . This whole Cloyne issue is a whitewash and there is not a thing anyone can do about it - A ROTTEN ROTTEN EVIL SYSTEM - GET OUT OF THE RC CHURCH ITS TAKING YOU TO HELL