The Roman Catholic church has come a long way from it's days of silence over the issue of paedophile priests. It has opened it's coffers and made restitution but there remains a doubt about exactly what the church intends as far as policy goes in respect to submitting offenders to the legal authorities to allow the law to run it's course.
The law in Australian states requires that a person with knowledge of a crime is committing an offence if they remain silent and do not submit a report to law enforcement - and there is scant knowledge that this is being obeyed.
The Royal Commission into " Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse " heard evidence from Father Brian Lucas, a member of the Church's " Special Issues Committee " which seems to have been tasked with investigating matters of paedophilia. Father Lucas explained that he took no notes when discussing this subject with priests accused of abusing children - because it was supposed to be a " frank and open " discussion and taking notes would inhibit such frankness.
In the past, it has been suggested that when errant priests discussed this matter with their superiors, the content of the discussions were protected by "confessional secrecy ". This seems to draw a long bow and would need to be tested in court to determine precisely where the legal interpretation of the start and end of a confessional session exists. It was certainly not claimed that this applied to the discussions that Father Lucas had in carrying out his duties.
For some strange reason, paedophilia seems to fall into a special category in the thinking and actions of the church. There is no question that if a priest murdered a member of the congregation he would be immediately reported, arrested and put before a court to answer for his crime. A similar fate would await a priest who blatantly stole church funds. It seems that only paedophilia is regarded as an " internal matter " to be discreetly handled in secrecy.
The public will not be convinced that the Roman Catholic church has fully and openly allowed the stain of paedophile priests to be treated for what it is - a crime punishable by law - until it clearly states that all such reports will be immediately reported to police - to allow the law to run it's course.
Whenever this question is openly asked - the answers seem evasive - and full of " if's - buts - and maybes " !
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