17h ago

Catholic Church To Excommunicate Priests for Following New US State Law

www.newsweek.com

Catholic Church to excommunicate priests for following new US state law

The Catholic Church has issued a warning to its clergy in Washington state: Any priest who complies with a new law requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities will be excommunicated.

https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-church-excommunicate-priests-following-new-us-state-law-2069039

125 comments

Kinda torn on this one. Confessional is kind of like a safe space — like talking to your therapist or a lawyer. It doesn’t help that the Catholic Church is probably the biggest cabal of pedophiles on earth. But, if they weren’t there would be an argument.
- There is no absolute confidentiality even with therapists and lawyers, they're both obligated to report anything said to them that they believe indicates you're planning to commit a crime or do harm to yourself or others. You can't just walk into your lawyers office and go "so I was molesting this eight year old" and expect them not to report that.
  
  In the US there isn't but as far as I can tell, over here in Germany lawyers and doctors are not permitted to report past crimes. The damage has been done and there is no harm to prevent anymore, as such keeping confidentiality has a higher priority than the state's desire to prosecute crimes.
  Even if these groups become aware of future planned crimes, they are not obligated to report anything if they genuinely attempt to prevent the person from comitting the crime (except for murder, manslaughter, kidnapping/taking hostages, genocide or war crimes).
  How does the nonexistant confidentiality of lawyers prevent them from deciding to stop being your lawyer and become a witness against you? I.e. you are accused of a crime, admit said crime to your lawyer, your lawyer then becomes a witness stating you admitted to the crime.
  
  Past crimes, when there's no reason to believe you would commit another crime in the future are covered by confidentiality. However if the lawyer believes you intend to continue committing crimes or that you have admitted that you plan on committing a crime are not covered. So yes, your lawyer could be a witness against you if you admit to planning a crime you have either not yet committed, or which you hadn't committed at the time you told your lawyer but subsequently then committed.
  There's also a question on whether admitting to crimes unrelated to your current case is covered by confidentiality or not. I'm not entirely clear on if that applies, but I think E.G. if a lawyer is representing you on a robbery case and you admit to him you murdered somebody 5 years ago he might be allowed to tell the police about that without breaking his obligation of confidentiality since that admission is entirely unrelated to the current case.
  
  Isn’t a confessional where you talk about past crimes? You absolutely do have a right to discuss past crimes with your lawyer in confidence. It’s called attorney-client privilege.
  
  If the lawyer believes you might commit a new crime based on the way you talk about past crimes, they are required to report it. Therapists might have to report past crimes, depending on the age of the victim and the type of crime. They have to report current and future crimes if there might be danger to others.
  
  That privilege does not extend to ongoing crimes or future crimes. Lawyers have an obligation to act to prevent harm to both their client and others. If you were to tell your lawyer you kidnapped someone and locked them in your basement, they're absolutely going to tell the police about it so that person can be rescued. Past crimes may or may not be confidential depending on the nature of them. For instance if you admit to molesting a kid in the past that's currently living with you the lawyer would likely report that because it's highly likely you would molest that child again in the future. It's all contextual, but there is no absolute right to confidentiality.

125 comments