by Br. Alexis Bugnolo
As of yesterday, any Catholic Priest hearing confessions in the State of Victoria, Australia, can be arrested on the spot. All the authorities need is to send an agent and pretend to confess the sin of pedophilia. And then wait the statutory length of time for the priest to report the sin to the local authorities, and if he does not, arrest him on the spot. (See yesterdays’ report in The Age)
But if a priest were to do as the new law requires, then he would fall foul of one of the most severe penalities in Church Law. Because to violate the seal of confession every Cardinal, Bishop or priest, earns an immediate latae sententiae excommunication, reserved to the Apostolic See, according to canon 1381 §1. Reserve, here, means that it cannot be lifted except by direct, verbal intervention of the Roman Pontiff or his delegated subordinate.
Canon 1371 §1 reads as follows
Can. 1388 – § 1. Confessarius, qui sacramentale sigillum directe violat, in excommunicationem latae sententiae Sedi Apostolicae reservatam incurrit; qui vero indirecte tantum, pro delicti gravitate puniatur.
§ 2. Interpres aliique, de quibus in can. 983, § 2, qui secretum violant, iusta poena puniantur, non exclusa excommunicatione.
Which in English would be:
Canon 1388 – §1. The confessor, who directly violates the sacramental seal, incurrs an excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Apostolic See; but who does so only indirectly, let him be punished according to the gravity of the delict.
§2. The translator and anyone else, spoken of in canon 983 §2, who violate the secret, let them be punished with a just punishment, not excluding excommunication.
Grave violations of Religious Liberty
The law which was pushed by anti-Catholic bigots, secularists, feminists, atheists and Muslims, is intended to completely destroy the Catholic Religion. This is because the confession of sins is a central act of the Catholic Faith which is a necessity of every Catholic at least once every year. If Catholics know their priest is willing to break the seal of confession for any reason, they will not be able to practice their religion.
The law also allows open persecution of the Catholic Clergy. Any priest, who might speak out on any topic, can now be targeted by this entrapment at any time he hears confession. Let us not imagine that this law will NOT be used to attack the Clergy who speak out against abortion, sodomy, Freemasonry, etc..
Ways Priests can protect themselves
Priests can protect themselves by affirming publicly that they have no intention of abiding the by the law. This is a pastoral and moral necessity to prevent the loss of faith among the faithful of confidence in the clergy during the administration of such a sacrament.
At the same time, they can refuse absolution to anyone who actually does confess such a sin, if that person does not agree to self-report himself, and have him, upon such agreement, sign a contract authorizing the priest to report him. This would not violate the seal, because it is not a crime for the penitent to violate or authorize the violation of the secret. And his signing of the contract in the confessional would be a free act authorizing such a revelation.
Saint Alphonsus dei Liguori, doctor of the Church on moral questions, has long ago counseled priests to refuse absolution if penitents are not willing to make restitution or report themselves to authorities for such grave crimes as murder or homicide.
However, since the Church seeks first of all the forgiveness of sin, it remains that this law is nefarious in the highest manner and must be publicly denounced in the strongest terms by all the faithful.
Bishops should fight back
Any Catholic in civil authority who insists on such a law is clearly subject to canonical penalties and who solicits such a revelation of the seal from a priest, causing him to make such a revelation is ipso facto excommunicated by Canon 1329 §1 as an accomplice. Bishops should declare their intention to declare and impose such a penalty, to make it absolutely clear that they will not go down without a fight.
A Law which cuts both ways
Finally, the law has obviously come out of the mind of someone who does not have the foggiest notion of what Confession is or how it is practiced. Because perhaps 99% of the penitents who come to make confession are unknown to the priest. In confession, the identity of the penitent is not disclosed by the penitent. So against whom would a priest file a report, if he did observe the law? He could just as well tell the police the penitent looked like a member of Victorian Parliament which passed the law, than a Catholic whom he has never seen before. Is Victoria State prepared to start arresting everyone on the word of every Catholic priest?
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CREDITS: The Featured Image is a screen shot from the article in The Age, newspaper, cited here above in this editorial and is used in accord with the fair use standard for such commentary.
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Well, the sodomite bishops & priests have brought this not only upon themselves but the entire CC by their mishandling of the vile Theodore McCarrick & his beach house boys & by wilfully allowing perverse men to administer their seminaries thereby ensuring decent, upright, straight young males were not admitted to the priesthood. The shifting around of corrupt priests by corrupt bishops & confessing to each other while continuing on their merry-go-round has been the norm for many decades & nothing was done about it until PBXVI started to try & clean ship. It was probably the main reason for his coerced semi abdication!
One way the CC could try & get around this law is to make Sodomy & Paedophilia retained sins, just as Perjury & being a member of the Mafia (who also corrupt young children) used to be. That would take the pressure off the humble priest & place it on the shoulders of condoning bishops where it belongs. It will be interesting to see if PF will be forced to make a stand on this question when so far he has been silent about the incarceration of Cardinal Pell while Wuerl, Cupich, Farrell, Tobin etc.remain in their exalted positions & McCarrick is a free man despite him ruining countless lives & costing the CC humungous amounts of money stolen from the donations of the laity for the upkeep of their churches, schools & priests.
Entrapment is still a crime here in Spain & may also be in international law.
I think entrapment is legal in the English tradition, but I am no expert.
This is an outrageous law entailing the use of pure entrapment. Question: If the priest doesn’t know the penitent how can he make a report?
First step is to eliminate face to face confession.
Next the Bishops should sue the State of Victoria as the law is probably unconstitutional.
Whether “Pope” Francis will get involved, as he should, is anyone’s guess.
Absolutely on target and brilliantly explained so no priest will be entrapped. If the authorities get away with this morbid thuggery what will they not be able to do to destroy the Catholic faith!
The Bishops of the State of Victoria, Australia need to fight back. This is a time of necessity, all confessions should be done by General Absolution. With perhaps the chanting of the 7 Penitential Psalms, an examination of conscience, a penance, an action of Contrition then General Absolution. This will teach the devil incarnates not to attempt to anger God again.
Here’s my confessor’s thoughts on this:
The law is so impractical that it ends up sponsoring the paedophiles by fostering an attitude of non repentance. In other words the law penalizes repentance and assures the continued vice of paedophiles and a hardening of their hearts.
There’s no way to enforce such a law anyway unless there is total surveillance of every priest (something only somewhere like China) or unless they run sting operations where spies go into the confessional and act as a penitent who has committed a crime of paedophilia, etc. Another problem is the criminals who commit such sins don’t go to confession because they’re too embarrassed. Now, why would they want to confess knowing that the priest will turn them in? So, this law ensures that paedophiles will think twice before repenting
Also, even most Catholics no longer go to confession and if they do, they don’t have a sense of urgency to go, plus they no longer confess serious sins anyway because in their minds God is so FrancisMerciful!
Good solution. No absolution without restitution/reparation. I have been advocating this for years and was called un Catholic.
This is my Archdiocese. The events unfolding around me, my personal experiences since before 1999, led me to be on a journey of discovery through Our Lady since 2003. Learning about Church prophecy, it’s enemies intensions across Finance State & Church.
The Bergoglio papacy and it’s assisted attack on innocent Cardinal Pell with local authorities are very much linked to other Church revolution events orchestrated by team Bergoglio from within. They are part of the usurping of the Church warned of by Our Lady for 400 years.
To put this in perspective, since 2005 I knew in my heart the events that have plagued the Bergoglio pontificate were not far away. The mas0nic attack is so encompassing that if you know the plan, you realise many things across the world of political finance, state revolution and church revolution are all related.
The fact Pope Benedict XVI said at he’s inauguration mass in April-May 2005 that the faithful need to pray for him for fear of fleeing from the wolves, should be all the evidence any Catholic needs to realise he remains the true and only pope given the events which have unfolded in the church and outside it since 2009. The urgent mas0nic global attack and push yo achieve its global agenda is real. And part of that agenda is for the attack on the Holy Sacraments and the Church itself both from within and outside.
When will prelates release that the accelerated attack on the Church has been assisted by the pontificate of Bergoglio? It therefore makes me feel ill when I see prelates like Comensoli, a man who openly idolises Bergoglio and others like Cupich, is here being quoted he will not break the seal of confession, yet he has been fast tracked from obscure Bishop to Archbishop of Melbourne over the last 8-10 months because he had been ready and open to push every Bergoglio inspired revolution and fake magisterium. He has been as Cupich has been to America, Comensoli has been to Australia.
The abuse scourge within Australia has been protected strategically by bad prelates for decades, only now to be utilised under a mas0nic elected pope. When will good prelates the world over realise this?
Yes Lawrence your totally right I’m from Sydney. Ave Maria! Brother Alexis. with regard to the breaking the seal of confession, good faithful priests have come out boldly saying from the pulpit they will never break the seal and have set up safe guards like no face to face confession. One priest I have witnessed wears a hood/cowl over his head and it covers most of his face walking to and from the confessional and does not put his name on the door. You can never know it’s him and he has plausible deniability to on who’s confession he has heard.
This is the deliberate response to destroy the Church: after setting up Cardinal Pell as the scapegoat and ensuring his false imprisonment.