There are some major changes going on in Ireland and this time I am not talking about the IMF or the mortgage situation of many Irish families and the massive debt that hangs over their heads.
This time I am talking about the changes that are taking place between the Catholic Church and the laws of the land, the Cloak and dagger laws that were created by the Catholic Church are under threat. Is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is the catholic religion slowly losing its grip in Ireland, Remember it is not that long ago that the government was run behind the scenes by the church?
Who rules the roost, the government & the law of the land or the Catholic Church?
Of all the topics for me to talk about there are none that get me as riled up as much as sexual abuse and especially where children are concerned?
For a few years now we have heard horrific stories of child abuse at the hands of priests in the Catholic Church, Stories that were kept hidden for decades are coming out every day and rocking the very core and foundation of the Catholic Church, each story is more horrific than the other, and the sickening things is that the men and some women(nun’s) who inflicted this abuse were in the eyes of God and society The protectors of innocence and life, Protectors of a faith that was meant to guide us to be good moral Christians and citizens of a society and culture to always do good and abolish evil,
Well now we see that some of those who preached this ethos to us are the very ones who broke every rule of the written word that they claimed to represent.
A group of Irish priests have announced that the country’s Catholic clergy will refuse to comply with any law requiring them to break the seal of the confession. The statement of defiance comes in response to proposed legislation announced by the government late last week, under which priests could face up to five years in prison for failure to disclose sexual crimes against minors admitted by penitents.
The Irish government said that under the legislation confessions would not be exempt from rules on mandatory reporting of child abuse, claiming that the move is a response to Ireland’s clerical abuse crisis. Taoiseach Enda Kenny said that the Catholic Church’s canon law would not be allowed to supersede state law
Well I was on a roll tonight with my blog on this subject when I decided to take a short tea break and listen to the radio and some relaxing music.
I Like to listen to 4FM Classic Hits but normally do not tune in after 9pm on a week night, however this time I did and the presenter Niall Boylan was in the full throws of a debate with callers on the fact that the Clergy should be forced by law of the land to break the code of confidentiality that exists around the confession box, They were discussing the exact topic to which I was writing my blog on.
To say the discussions between Niall and the callers were getting heated would be an understatement, Niall was adamant that the clergy should have to break the code of silence and the callers were defending it, much to the annoyance of Niall Boylan. But this is the old Irish thing where some people still protect the Church even if it means covering up serious crimes against children, that is the power the Catholic Church still holds from its power inflicting days. Now I am known to be objective and I had to agree with Niall Boylan on this one where children are concerned, and from what I can tell from Niall’sreaction to the callers, it was the fact that children are being abused and priests should not be allowed to hide behind a church law that protects an abuser, This I do agree with, But it’s not as simple as that and it never is. Do we abolish the church confidentiality law entirely or just on sexual abuse cases where children are concerned?
Confessions are good for the soul and as humans we do need to talk and express ourselves, if we didn’t then we would end up going demented holding things in but what if you have done something wrong and are living with it in your mind every day, who can you trust to talk to without it going out like a Chinese whisper because that is the fear that many people have when they are holding something in, they need to turn to someone, even the murderer has to blurt out what he has done at some stage weather to brag or be remorseful everyone has to talk.
The Catholic Church has a law that states that whatever is told to a priest in the confession box can never leave the confession box; this law has worked well for quite a few people who have committed minor crimes and Major ones.
The confessor feels that he has been cleared of his or her sins and gets on with their lives, some priests may have encouraged the offender to go to the legal authorities and make a statement and some priests may not have encouraged this at all, this is where the bigger problem lies for us that live in a society that has had its religious beliefs rocked with all the scandals that have emerged.
Priests are not the only ones who have this type of confidentiality law.
Journalists
If I was a journalist and I get a story from a person that I will print for all to see then I have a right to protect that person from ever being named, some journalists have gone to prison to protect their sources, If the journalists was to get a story from a man who has sexually abused a child would he go to the Gardai? If he knew an informer had killed a person would he notify the gardai and jeopardise his story in the papers? I don’t think so.
Psychiatrists
Then you have psychiatrists they are also bound by doctor patient privileges, will they also be looked upon to break their own law of ethics to divulge information to the authorities that could lead to the arrest and conviction of a child sex offender or any criminal for that matter?
Gardai/Police
It’s a well known fact that the Gardai and Police have informers and they will never divulge the name of their source, In a lot of situations an informers life could be lost if the Gardai or Police were ever to let the informers name out to the public and let’s face it a lot of crimes and criminals would get away with murder if informers did not exist, So will the Gardai now have to abolish their own informer protection laws? Supposing the informer was part of a child sex ring and decided when arrested to turn his friends in and give evidence in Camera(private only to the judge) that could convict the other major players in the ring do you think the Gardai should entertain the law of protecting the source even though the source(informer) is part of the ring but will now get away because he is giving evidence? Is this right or wrong?
Ireland was always a strong hold for the Catholic faith and some may say that it kept moral rules and regulations in place to enhance the survival of our culture however we now see that these rules were a power of man, A power that the church created to instil fear in the hearts of every single man/woman and child, people assumed that while the catholic church was at its strongest all those years ago that no rules were ever broken by those who lived under the stronghold of the catholic religion, this of course we now know not to be true, girls still got pregnant and were sent away, forced to do long hours in laundries taking care of priests the very men that were abusing them then their babies were forcibly taken from the mothers arms and given up for adoption, some of these pregnancies were even brought about by a male family member but of course Man had the power so he was forgiven but the woman was not. Children were being sexually abused and tortured by the priests who were meant to protect them and let me remind you the Catholic Church has a law of abstinence, a very strict Law and one that no man should ever undertake as it is not a normal existence for a man or woman to not engage in a sexual act during their lifetime. Crimes were still committed by people who stole to feed their families; the church had so much money and continued to build up its bank while the majority of its congregation were kept as lower classes in poverty. Is this the religion we are now trying to defend on radio stations and TV debates?
I do think that where child abuse crimes are committed then the priest has to go to the Gardai and report this crime, this is an offence against a minor who society has to protect at all cost, there should be no question or doubt about this at all in our society or churches and with all that has gone on in the Catholic church with child sex abuse then they of all organisations should not have the privilege of hiding information that could lead to the apprehension of a child sex offender, these are heinous crimes against humanity and all that we are meant to uphold as human beings.
What is your view on the Church confidentiality law being abolished?
If I may add a personal note I will be tuning into Niall Boylan on 4FM Late Show, he seems to be a man who shoots straight from the hip and boy can he get a debate going.
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