Catholic Church To Excommunicate Priests for Following New US State Law

Take away their tax exempt status and tax them as the huge profitable businesses that they are.

Catholics are enablers and they are disgusting. Nothing like Christian love. We all have to follow the laws....why do catholics think they are above this? Stop diddling children and providing cover for pedos. I grew up and became a man when I left Christianity. There is a reason why people burn down catholic churches. What a cancer on the spirit of the human soul. The Catholic church is a major land owner. Charity is tyranny. Fair wages NOW. Justice for the global south. No more missionaries of any christian variety. No War but the Class War

: reads headline

Woo! Good for them! Stick it to The Man!

: reads article body

ahhhh fuck these guys

The worlds largest pedophile ring doing gods work I guess.

I was really hoping they'd be refusing to comply with unjust laws. If they wanted ways to look like the good guys, these days we've got plenty.

Fuck. Religion.

It's funny, the post above this one on my feed is a bunch of people crowing about how you'd have to be a "tankie" to not support the new head of this organization.

Separation of church and state goes both ways.

Confession is a religious rite. Try to legislate that rite is a violation of that separation.

Priests are bound by their office to maintain absolute confidentiality of confessed sins. Otherwise people are not likely to confess their sins.

It doesn’t matter how you, personally, feel about this or their religion or the value of confession as a sacrament, that’s their religion. The state doesn’t get to intervene.

The church should stay out of state affairs, and the state should stay out of church affairs. Exceptions exist, like when practices are outright criminal in themselves. But the state cannot compel a priest to violate their office. This is long accepted. You cannot compel a priest to testify about confession, for example.

Priests can encourage people to go to the police, but that’s it. Their role in confession is between the sinner and their god.

A curious question. Why isn't everyone a mandatory reporter for child abuse? And assuming there is a good reason why, then why are doctors and such specifically seperated out. And do priests fit that same criteria?

The Catholic church is hardly going to allow priests to be forced to go to the police and admit crimes.

Bro it's breaking Catholic canon. They can change that shit that's what the Pope is for.

Maybe God would be chill with revealing child abuse even if it comes from confession. Just carve a little exception out there. Crazy that the clergy would rather protect pedophiles than reinterpreting some doctrine.

So it was unclear to me from the article if it simply made priests mandatory reporters or if it went further. My understanding is that mandatory reporters don't have to report past occurrences specifically. They only havecto report if it is currently happening or they suspect going to happen. If that is the case, it should be fine. Confession isn't about what you are going to do.

Why aren't all the preists who diddle kids excommunicated?

I read the headline and was prepared to support the church on this one (for once). Then I read the first paragraph of the article. I have never made a 180 on an opinion so fast. The fuck is wrong with the Catholic church and child abuse? Why is this a constant problem with them?

Therapists are required to break confidentiality if they suspect child abuse. The church thinks it is above secular law and only answers to God, not to mention the protection it offers to its own child abusers. It's complete nonsense and a good example of why religious tolerance has limits.

Wait a sec. What the fuck? So reporting child rape is now BAD???

Looks like I'm going to continue not being catholic.

The U.S. Department of Justice said it is investigating whether the law infringes on First Amendment religious protections.

And for extra reading, learn about how the new pope covered up for priests that abused kids when he was a bishop:

https://www.jpost.com/international/article-853274

*Edit: removed the bad source. The Jpost article is good and includes several additional sources. For more: https://www.qwant.com/?q=+Robert+Prevost+abuse+cover+up

Imagine thinking you could sin recklessly, tell it to some dude in a funny hat/robe and that God is somehow okay with it. Imagine keeping the identities of child abusers secret because of that stupid line of thought (or because you can relate to the person touching kids).

And there goes any hope of Ameripope not being a piece of shit. Delightful.

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.

Oh, I thought maybe this had to do with standing up against some regressive anti-immigration law, but nope, it's just the Catholic church being weird about sexual abuse. Again.

We also need a law that requires news sources to provide links to law(s) being discussed in their articles!

If anyone would like to read this law here you go.

I support this state law, though I think it's unlikely to directly have the intended effect and will probably just prevent people from confessing instead.

I don't think people with a guilty conscience should have a way to clear their conscience other than behaving better and making up for their wrongs with better behavior.

At the same time, I get why the Catholic Church opposes the state law. And it's one of the biggest reasons I'm against all Christian religions, Evangelicalism included: they're more concerned about power than about people. And yeah, I think the Catholic Church's stance on this issue is fucked up, just like most Christian stances on political moral issues are fucked up these days.

But the timing of this article, and the right wing motivations against Catholicism make it clear that this article is also more concerned about power than about people. The state law doesn't stop child abuse or result in any more reporting of child abuse.

The way I see it, this article is actually right wing propaganda targeting the Pope because he supports Europe and Ukraine against Russia.

They've always had this policy. A priest would be excommunicated for revealing even a murderer, if they knew about it from a confession.

requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities

So they aren't blatantly evil at least. Confessions remaining private is the foundation of how they work. Either way, the church loses on this one.

We'll kick you out of our kiddy diddler club

Is quite the threat

Priest: I’d like to report child abuse because that’s the law. Church: You’re out! Go to hell, dickbag.

Holy fuck that’s awful

Pedophiles protecting pedophiles? Who would have thunk!

It means the law works.

If they truly believe in their faith, then they will serve their sentences faithfully, as a show if their devotion to their god.

Protecting child abuse should have a cost regardless of the motivation.

So the new pope is off to a GREAT start, I guess 🤷

Any priest who complies with a new law requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities will be excommunicated.

Oh, are we going to play that game?

Why does the Catholic Church have to be so fucking evil?

Kinda torn on this one. Confessional is kind of like a safe space — like talking to your therapist or a lawyer. It doesn’t help that the Catholic Church is probably the biggest cabal of pedophiles on earth. But, if they weren’t there would be an argument.

Holy Shit!

The holiest of shits

Wow literally threatening people who report child abuse…this is why people have no faith in religion

Just make a new tax called the "Molestation Enablers Tax" that all institutions will pay if they opt out of reporting.