Priests should be compelled to break the seal of Confession in cases of child abuse, a lawyer has told a national inquiry.
Solicitor David Enright made the proposal at the opening of a three-week hearing into Benedictine schools.
It echoes the recommendation made by Australia’s royal commission on child abuse. In August Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne said he would go to jail rather than violate the seal. The Catechism says the seal of Confession is “inviolable” and any priest who violates it incurs automatic excommunication.
Mr Enright, a solicitor who represents former pupils at a Comboni missionary school, told the hearing on Monday: “Matters revealed in Confession, including child abuse, cannot be used in governance.
“One can’t think of a more serious obstacle embedded in the law of the Catholic Church to achieving child protection.”
He added: “The Catholic Church is so opaque, so disparate, so full of separate bodies who are not subject to any authority that it is difficult to see how reform can be made to provide good governance and introduce acceptable standards of child protection.”
Richard Scorer, another lawyer representing victims, called for a “mandatory reporting law”, asking: “Why has the temptation to cover up abuse been particularly acute in organisations forming part of the Roman Catholic Church?”
The hearing into two Benedictine independent schools, Ampleforth and Downside, is the latest segment of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse – thought to be the biggest public inquiry ever established in England and Wales.
Lawyers representing the Benedictines expressed regret for past abuse. Kate Gallafent QC, for the English Benedictine Congregation, said there had been “intense sadness at the anguish caused to so many people”. Matthias Kelly QC, speaking for Ampleforth, said: “We wish to apologise for the hurt, distress and damage done to those who suffered abuse when in our care. We will do everything we can to ensure that there is no repetition.”
Meanwhile, a Trappist abbot based on the Welsh island of Caldey has said he is “truly sorry” that his community failed to pass on allegations of abuse by a monk to police.
The abbot, Brother Daniel van Santvoort, said last week that the allegations against Fr Thaddeus Kotik should have been reported to authorities. Fr Kotik, who died in 1992, allegedly abused at least nine children during the 1970s and 80s.
One of the abuse survivors has alleged that Brother van Santvoort knew about the abuse before it was brought to his attention in 2014. The abbot denies this, saying he had not thought at any point that Fr Kotik had been a serial abuser.
Brother van Santvoort said in a statement on the island’s Facebook page that the community felt “great sadness and regret”.
“Any allegations of child abuse should be reported to the appropriate authorities and investigated,” he said. “This clearly did not happen and we apologise.
“When I came to the island in 1990, and then became abbot in 1999, I knew nothing of any such claims, but I was made aware of them in 2014 when one claimant contacted me.”
Brother van Santvoort said that Caldey Abbey had paid compensation to six people, and that he had flown to Australia to apologise in person to two claimants.
New Divine Mercy shrine named
A Welsh church with relics from two saints has been designated as a diocesan shrine of Divine Mercy.
The Church of the Sacred Heart at Morriston, Swansea, has a first-class relic of St Faustina Kowalska, the Polish mystic whose visions of Jesus inspired the Divine Mercy devotion, as well as a relic of St Teresa of Calcutta.
Bishop Tom Burns of Menevia proclaimed its new status during a visit last month.
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.