News

38802 readers

1488 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious biased sources will be removed at the mods’ discretion. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted separately but not to the post body. Sources may be checked for reliability using Wikipedia, MBFC, AdFontes, GroundNews, etc.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source. Clickbait titles may be removed.

Posts which titles don’t match the source may be removed. If the site changed their headline, we may ask you to update the post title. Clickbait titles use hyperbolic language and do not accurately describe the article content. When necessary, post titles may be edited, clearly marked with [brackets], but may never be used to editorialize or comment on the content.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials, videos, press releases, or celebrity gossip will be allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis. Mods may use discretion to pre-approve videos or press releases from highly credible sources that provide unique, newsworthy content not available or possible in another format.

7. No duplicate posts.

If an article has already been posted, it will be removed. Different articles reporting on the same subject are permitted. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners or news aggregators.

All posts must link to original article sources. You may include archival links in the post description. News aggregators such as Yahoo, Google, Hacker News, etc. should be avoided in favor of the original source link. Newswire services such as AP, Reuters, or AFP, are frequently republished and may be shared from other credible sources.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 3 years ago

MODERATORS

JonsJava@lemmy.world

gedaliyah@lemmy.world

little_cow@lemmy.world

348

Arizona clergy who learn of child abuse in confessions aren’t required to report it, court rules (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 1 week ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world

107 comments fedilink hide all child comments

State supreme court rules in case of two bishops who were silent about three children abused by Mormon parents

Clergy members in Arizona who learn of child abuse in the context of religious confession are not required to report it, the state’s supreme court has said in a ruling that protects what church leaders call the “seal of the confessional”.

The panel’s ruling ends a long-running case in which three children who were sexually abused by their parents sued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormon church, and two bishops who became aware of the crimes but remained silent.

The case has parallels in a short-lived 2025 law in Washington state that would have compelled clergy members there to report sexual abuse. That proposal was permanently withdrawn in October after legal action by the Catholic church.

In a statement, the LDS welcomed the unanimous ruling by the state supreme court on Thursday that exempts clergy members as “mandated reporters” if they learned of the abuse of minors in the confession booth or through other “confidential” methods.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] dogslayeggs@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

A) The priest does not believe it condemns them to eternal damnation. They know they will get excommunicated, but that does not mean they will go to hell. They can repent and be forgiven and go to heaven, just not eat a wafer at church. They can even still go to Catholic mass! They just can't eat the wafer. That's the entirety of their punishment, as long as they repent of their sin. If they are fighting so hard to protect child molesters because they don't want to get kicked out of church, then clearly they would repent being forced to follow the law instead of following their god's law.

B) This is allowing very real torture of a child because an adult has a hypothetical belief. In your analogy of a schizophrenic, you complain about "You’re basically locking someone up for the crime of being mentally ill." Turn that around to be the more correct analogy: You're basically condemning a child to sexual abuse and a lifetime of mental torture because you didn't want to lock up a mentally ill person. Being mentally ill is not a crime. Acting out something that harms another person IS a crime. Yeah, maybe priests don't get sent to prison, but maybe they get sent to a mental health facility where they can talk about why their god cares more about protecting pedophiles instead of innocent children.

C) I don't know if the priest would have to give that disclaimer. That isn't settled law anywhere. Also, in your hypothetical, the confessing person is religious and believes that if they don't confess this sin they will go to hell. So their choice is between going to hell for eternity or telling a priest who will report them to the police, who may or may not be able to get a conviction depending on the evidence. If a person is religious enough to be confessing pedophilia, that person will believe that eternal damnation is worse than 20 years in prison.