Priests urge paedophiles to go from confession box to police

PROMINENT priests say they would urge paedophiles to go to police if they admitted in confession to crimes against children.

PROMINENT priests say they would urge paedophiles to go to police if they admitted to crimes in confession.

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Well known men of the cloth say they would refuse absolution, with the only penance for a person who committed such a serious offence to be the “full force of the law”.

The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse recommended priests be charged for not reporting confessions of paedophiles. Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart has said the confessional seal should remain.

But Fr Brendan Reed from Our Lady of Good Counsel and All Hallows Parish said those who admit to those crimes in confession should expect one result.

“The public expect, and the church expects, that it is such a serious sin the penance has to be no less than handing themselves in,” he said.

Fr Bob Maguire wants officials and bishops to work out a formula for apprehending paedophiles ‘that satisfies both church and state’.

But confusion remains over how the law would work if introduced.

Highly respected priest Fr Bob Maguire said he wanted officials and bishops to “work out a formula that satisfies both church and state”.

“Am I to take my mobile phone with me and when they make a confession hit record or call police?” he asked. “You don’t know who is in the (confession) box — what can you do with it? “Of course I’d agree in principal, I’m a secular human — citizen Maguire first and priest Maguire second.

“(But) would the bosses please get together and work out a formula that is practical.”

Fr Steven Rigo of St Mary’s Presbytery said no one had confessed sexual abuse to him during his 35 years as a priest.

“I wouldn’t give them absolution until they went to police. Until that’s done, absolution can’t be granted,” he said. “Church law and civil law need not be in conflict.”

Fr Reed said that he would be “reluctant to offer any absolution until there was agreement the penance was to be taken”.

“And I think the penance is clear now — owning up and the full force of the law,” he said.

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