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As
Published in the Concord Monitor of February 3!
New Attack on
Seal of Confession: Religious Persecution Looms Over America
In 2003 the American Society for the
Defense of Tradition, Family and Property-TFP helped to voice
the Catholic outcry across the nation against legislative
bills in several states that would oblige a priest to break
the Seal of Confession. Many Catholic cardinals, bishops and
priests affirmed they would go to jail rather than comply
with such iniquitous laws.1 Due
to the protest, none of these bills became law. New Hampshire
was one state where such a law was proposed in 2003.
Now, three years later, a second attempt
is under way in the Granite State. In January, State Representatives
Mary Stuart Gile (D-Merr. 10) and Donald A. Brueggemann (D-Merr.
12) introduced House Bill 1127. This bill is presently under
consideration in the Children and Family Law Committee.
Breaking the Bond of Secrecy Would
Institutionalize Mistrust
HB 1127 removes the clergy confidentiality
exception for mandatory reporting of child sexual abuse. Current
law exempts religious ministers from disclosing to authorities
"a confession or confidence made to them in their professional
character as spiritual advisers."2
HB 1127 would change this so that whenever the "confession
or confidence" involves child abuse, the priest will
be required to report the incident to law enforcement officers.
Any priest refusing to do so is guilty of a misdemeanor.3
The American TFP vehemently protests
this unconstitutional initiative which violates the most fundamental
right of New Hampshire Catholics to practice their faith without
government interference.
According to natural law, confidences
received under an explicit or implicit promise of secrecy
cannot be disclosed, except in extreme situations. Doing so
destroys the trust needed for a normal, harmonious relationship
among people. Obligatory reporting destroys the loving trust
between husband and wife, parents and children, and the trustful,
transparent relations that should exist between clergy and
faithful, attorneys and clients, doctors and patients. This
natural law norm can only be dispensed with in the most extreme
circumstances because the institutionalization of mistrust
brings greater harm to society than the supposed good being
sought.4
Divine Law Forbids the Violation of
the Seal of Confession
If, on the natural plane, confidentiality
in counseling is essential for the good functioning of society,
on the supernatural plane-where the Sacrament of Confession
rests-confidentiality is an absolute necessity. The need for
confidentiality stems not merely from a law of the natural
order, but from an imposition of Divine Law which allows no
exception.
Confession or Penance is a Sacrament
instituted by Our Lord Jesus Christ, whereby the Catholic
priest, serving as a visible instrument of the Savior, in
His name and by His Divine power, pardons the sins confessed
to him. And since Confession would become odious without an
absolute guarantee of secrecy, the latter is an indispensable
condition for the Sacrament.5
A Priest Who Violates the Seal of
Confession Incurs Automatic Excommunication
Moreover, Catholic ecclesiastical
discipline imposes the most severe sanctions on priests who
violate the Seal of Confession. Should a confessor directly
violate the Seal of Confession, he incurs automatic excommunication
reserved to the Apostolic See (Code of Canon Law, no. 1388
§1).6
A law forcing priests to break the
Seal of Confession will place them in the excruciating dilemma
of choosing to obey God and the Church or a secularist law!
Priests faithful to their sublime calling will answer with
Saint Peter: "We ought to obey God, rather than men."7
An Ineffective Law
Even from a pragmatic point of view,
HB 1127 is absurd. Those guilty of child sexual abuse will
simply be more likely to avoid Confession. However, in abstaining
from Confession, criminals cut themselves off from the benefits
of the Sacrament and thus from supernatural grace and the
possibility of effectively quitting their sinful ways.
Knowledge that the Seal of Confession
is no longer an absolute in the eyes of the state will have
a chilling effect on all Catholics, possibly leading many
to stay away from the Sacrament. Would instilling suspicion
and fear in the hearts of ordinary Catholics be the real intent
behind HB 1127?
Alliance of Dissident Catholics and
Anti-Catholic Activists
The attack on the Seal of Confession
is part of the larger onslaught against the Church beginning
in January 2002. Liberal elements in the media used the clergy
sexual abuse scandals as the pretext for their attack on the
Catholic Church and Her moral teachings. They were quickly
joined by dissident Catholics, promoters of the homosexual
agenda, and activist judges.
When State Rep. Mary Stuart Gile introduced
her first bill on the Seal of Confession in 2003, she was
supported by Anne Coughlin, a New Hampshire leader of the
liberal Catholic organization Voice of the Faithful. A February
12, 2003 article in the Eagle Tribune reported:
Anne Coughlin…said the attorney
general never agreed that the confession was exempt from the
reporting requirements….
Coughlin, a member of Voice of the
Faithful, an organization that formed in the wake of the clergy
abuse cases, said the last thing the Catholic Church should
be doing now is protecting its secrecy that covered up and
denied years of abuse.
In her testimony to lawmakers, Coughlin
said it is unconstitutional to grant any one church an exemption
to the law that does not apply to all clergy uniformly. She
also rebutted Quinlan's argument for protecting the "seal
of the confession," noting that there is no scriptural
basis for it.8
A Wake-up Call for Catholics Nationwide
If the New Hampshire General Court
approves HB 1127 it will prove that a persecution against
the Catholic Church has begun in America.
We urge New Hampshire Catholics to
organize themselves, protest, and defeat this bill and any
similar attempt to violate the Seal of Confession. HB 1127
needs to die in committee. If despite protests, it passes
the committee and goes to the full House, we urge Catholics
to consider daily legal and peaceful protests outside the
General Court, with signs and banners to raise public awareness,
until this bill is buried.
May Our Lady, Patroness of America,
protect us from religious persecution, and obtain from her
Divine Son courage and perseverance for all American Catholics
in the struggle to defend the Church.
February 3, 2006
The American TFP
BOX
How can faithful New Hampshire Catholics
oppose this new attack on the Seal of Confession?
" Call or write your state legislators
and voice your concern that HB 1127 will scuttle your most
fundamental right-the freedom to practice your Catholic faith;
" Write a letter to the editor
of your local newspaper denouncing HB 1127 and the start of
religious persecution in America;
" Ask your parish priest and
other priests you know to speak out against this iniquitous
proposal in their homilies;
" And, above all, pray to God,
particularly before the Blessed Sacrament, that He protect
His Church from this new and outrageous attack.
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