The Irish justice minister has said that forthcoming child protection measures, including mandatory reporting will "apply regardless of any internal rules of any religious grouping".
Alan Shatter was responding to comments made by Cardinal Sean Brady who defended the seal of confession.
Cardinal Brady stressed it was a "sacred and treasured" rite.
Mr Shatter said past failures in the Catholic Church had led paedophiles to believe they could act with "impunity".
Last month the Cloyne report was published.
It found the diocese failed to report all complaints of abuse to police. Past failures
As a result, a number of child protection measures were announced under the legislation currently being drawn up.
A priest could be convicted of a criminal offence if they were told of a sexual abuse case and failed to report it to the civil authorities.
In a statement, a spokesperson for Mr Shatter said: "It is the failure in the past to make such reports that has led sexual predators into believing that they have impunity and facilitated paedophiles preying on children and destroying their lives."
Anyone who fails to declare information about the abuse of a child could face a prison term of five years.
The Irish Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that priests who are given admissions of child abuse during the sacrament of confession will not be exempt from new rules on mandatory reporting.
During his homily to worshippers at Knock shrine in County Mayo, on Sunday, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland said: "Freedom to participate in worship and to enjoy the long-established rites of the church is so fundamental that any intrusion upon it is a challenge to the very basis of a free society" he said. Child protection
The inquiry into the Cloyne Diocese was set up by the Irish government in January 2009 following a report published the previous month.
It was conducted by the National Board for Safeguarding Children (NBSC) - a body set up by the Catholic Church to oversee child protection policies.
It found child protection practices in the diocese were "inadequate and in some respects dangerous".
Meanwhile, it has been announced that 22 new seminarians are to begin studying for the priesthood this autumn at Ireland's national seminary, Saint Patrick's College in Maynooth.
The group includes a chartered surveyor, a pub manager, several mature students and at least one school leaver.
The average age of the new entrants is 25-years-old, and they come from 14 of the 26 dioceses of Ireland.
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Child protection measures apply regardless of religious rules
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3 comments:
once again framing things in terms of child protection is supposed to bypass all civil rights and common sense, applying to emotion with no regard for logic.
this issue has nothing to do with protecting children! if people have nowhere they can feel safe to disclose their innermost thoughts and feelings they will bottle them up and this will lead to much larger problems. especially people who already filled with rage or know that society is against them need to have some outlet for that hostility or feeling of being outcast. this is an intrusion on a very necessary right to privacy... a right which is good for the state as a whole as well as the individuals to maintain the right. the church can't come out as strongly as i can about the issue because they can't afford to be seen even incrementally as protecting child abusers but as i've pointed out, that isn't really the issue at all.
Advocate....you are arguing that individuals who molest children have the right to privacy and this is a fundamental right. This is a crazy argument and to look at it at any other way is just wrong,
i'm saying that a) there is a larger issue at stake than any particular crime b) everyone has a certain right to privacy. if it can be infringed on anyone, noone really has it. c) society would be far worse off if this were not the case d) the church understands the broader implications of what's at stake.
this should not be an emotional issue but a logical one. for the good of everyone, not for the bad of certain individuals.
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