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
The priest actually has to repent - if he still thinks he did the right thing, he isn’t forgiven.
He could just lie. Priests are great at it.
Doesn’t apply to God’s forgiveness
Agreed, and right now they are fighting tooth and nail against having to say something, so it sounds like they are repenting it already. They are being compelled by law, not by their own desire to be, you know, good people.
“Compelled by law” isn’t a sufficient justification for Catholics in this case - they’re supposed to die rather than reveal something that was said to them in confession, like Saint John of Nepomuk.
Yes, we all know that. This entire story is the church stating publicly they don’t consider compelled by law to be sufficient justification.
I’m talking about the punishment for breaking the church law is basically “take a time out for a bit” while the punishment for following church law is “child gets a lifetime of pain and trauma.” Priests are choosing their own personal connection to their friends rather than helping to prevent child abuse.