Catholic Church To Excommunicate Priests for Following New US State Law
Catholic Church To Excommunicate Priests for Following New US State Law
The Justice Department is investigating whether the new law violated the First Amendment.
The Catholic Church has issued a warning to its clergy in Washington state: Any priest who complies with a new law requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities will be excommunicated.
https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-church-excommunicate-priests-following-new-us-state-law-2069039
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There's all this talk about how this will automatically excommunicate priests who violate the confessional and how it's a grave sin and how the law is forcing them to sin and all that. I would understand the extreme pushback on this if this made a priest go to hell.
Here's the thing: Excommunication is TEMPORARY!! The penalty for a priest violating the confessional and potentially saving the lives of many children is a temporary separation from the Church that can readmit the priest after a penance. They care more about themselves being away from the Church for a short period of time than for the lifetime of health and happiness of children. They make it sound like it's the worst punishment you can give to a priest, on par with the punishment this gives to a kid who is harmed. It's fucking sickening.
I would understand the extreme pushback on this if this made a priest go to hell.
I wouldn't. Religion shouldn't get a fucking hall pass for arbitrarily bad shit because "we don't want to go to the scary place we made up."
Arguably a priest who really cared would be morally obligated to speak up about a situation like the one being described, even if the consequence is excommunication.