The issue isn’t with therapy, or talking. The issue is what priests will do when they have evidence that a crime has occured.
I have enough of a Catholic background to know that confession isn’t a “Get Out Of Hell Free” card. You are supposed to be repentant, and part of that is owning up to any crime you might have committed and turning yourself in. Because of you are confessing a crime to your priest, they can’t really be sure that you are truly repentant until you make good for your transgression with the legal authorities.
But! Catholic priests have been caught diddling kids for years, and when the church found out about it, they preferred to deal with it “internally”. Instead of submitting the priests to secular authorities, they shuffled them off to some other parish to try to be repentant there. Often times, they just ended up doing it again. Where was the Catholic Church’s deeply held beliefs then?
This is why there is so much hostility with the church right now, they can act all sanctimonious when someone tries to impose reporting requirements on them but we know that they have covered shit like this up in the past. Any goodwill they might have had being religious leaders is now depleted. Why shouldn’t we treat them like everyone else?
The issue isn’t with therapy, or talking. The issue is what priests will do when they have evidence that a crime has occured.
I have enough of a Catholic background to know that confession isn’t a “Get Out Of Hell Free” card. You are supposed to be repentant, and part of that is owning up to any crime you might have committed and turning yourself in. Because of you are confessing a crime to your priest, they can’t really be sure that you are truly repentant until you make good for your transgression with the legal authorities.
But! Catholic priests have been caught diddling kids for years, and when the church found out about it, they preferred to deal with it “internally”. Instead of submitting the priests to secular authorities, they shuffled them off to some other parish to try to be repentant there. Often times, they just ended up doing it again. Where was the Catholic Church’s deeply held beliefs then?
This is why there is so much hostility with the church right now, they can act all sanctimonious when someone tries to impose reporting requirements on them but we know that they have covered shit like this up in the past. Any goodwill they might have had being religious leaders is now depleted. Why shouldn’t we treat them like everyone else?