Swordsmyth
03-02-2019, 08:03 PM
A new bill in California seeks to intrude on one of the most sacred relationships—that between clergy and penitent in formal confession. Currently, clergy members are already mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect, but sins confessed specifically in confession are exempt under current law from mandatory reporting.
Bill 360 (https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd13.senate.ca.gov/files/sb360_bill_language.pdf), introduced by Democrat state Sen. Jerry Hill, would “delete that exception for a penitential communication, thereby requiring clergy to make a mandated report even if they acquired the knowledge or reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication.” This is an egregious overreach of secular authority, stepping into sacred religious rites, and will not protect children or stem the tide of child abuse.
People will not stop wronging others because their priests are compelled to report them. Instead, people who desperately need Christ’s peace and forgiveness will no longer be able to approach confession with the certainty that what is said there will stay there. This will hamper their free and full confession and most likely keep such sins in the darkness longer rather than bring them out for proper punishment.
People do not enter seminaries with aspirations of becoming informants on hurting and devastated people. Rather, they enter the ministry to help people spiritually, and their rights to do so in America must be protected and fought for. Do we have the right to free exercise of religion, or do we not?
More at: http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/26/california-bill-force-pastors-priests-tell-heard-confession/
Bill 360 (https://sd13.senate.ca.gov/sites/sd13.senate.ca.gov/files/sb360_bill_language.pdf), introduced by Democrat state Sen. Jerry Hill, would “delete that exception for a penitential communication, thereby requiring clergy to make a mandated report even if they acquired the knowledge or reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication.” This is an egregious overreach of secular authority, stepping into sacred religious rites, and will not protect children or stem the tide of child abuse.
People will not stop wronging others because their priests are compelled to report them. Instead, people who desperately need Christ’s peace and forgiveness will no longer be able to approach confession with the certainty that what is said there will stay there. This will hamper their free and full confession and most likely keep such sins in the darkness longer rather than bring them out for proper punishment.
People do not enter seminaries with aspirations of becoming informants on hurting and devastated people. Rather, they enter the ministry to help people spiritually, and their rights to do so in America must be protected and fought for. Do we have the right to free exercise of religion, or do we not?
More at: http://thefederalist.com/2019/02/26/california-bill-force-pastors-priests-tell-heard-confession/