Priests who hear an admission of child abuse in the confessional should be prosecuted if they fail to report it to police, an Australian inquiry into child sexual abuse said Monday.
The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse proposed 85 changes to the law to protect children in a report released Monday.
There should be “no excuse, protection, or privilege” for priests who fail to tell police if they hear an admission of child sexual abuse in the confessional, the commission said.
“We heard evidence that perpetrators who confessed to sexually abusing children went on to re-offend and seek forgiveness again,” the commission said in its report.
The commission said it heard evidence of multiple cases where abuse was disclosed in confession, both by victims and perpetrators.
“We are satisfied that confession is a forum where Catholic children have disclosed their sexual abuse and where clergy have disclosed their abusive behaviour in order to deal with their own guilt,” the report said.
For three years, the Royal Commission has been investigating how institutions such as churches, schools, government authorities, orphanages and sport clubs reacted to reports of child sex abuse.
It has uncovered revelations about the level of abuse of children and the cover-up of the abuse by churches and authorities.
In February, the Commission released figures showing 7 per cent of Catholic priests in Australia between 1950 and 2009 had been accused of child sex crimes.
The Royal Commission, Australia’s highest form of inquiry, is due to deliver its final report on December 15.
