Amid pedophile clergy scandals, the Vatican has declared “unacceptable” any efforts by politicians or lawmakers to force priests to violate their sacred obligation to keep secret what faithful tell them in confession.
Nowhere in the entire New Testament, in any dispensation, do we see people going and confessing their sins to a priest in the Church Age, it doesn't exist. In fact, the Bible warns against the idea of a priestly ruling class. Verses in Matthew 20:24-28 clearly show this. The Catholic Church which claims to be a Christian church when in fact it is not, is now saying that the 'sacrament of confession' must be protected. There are no "sacraments' for Christians in the Bible, and the idea of confessing your private sins to another human being is demonic in nature.
"For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time." 1 Timothy 2:5,6 (KJV)
So why is the Vatican so up in arms about protecting the Catholic rite of confession? Because it is in confession that all pedophile priests confess their sins to other pedophile priests, and the last thing they want to have happen is for law enforcement to be privy to that information. I am
so glad that God saved me out of this Babylonian mess called
the Catholic Church, and I pray that any Catholics reading this article will
ask God to save them and become born again according to the Bible.
Amid sex abuse scandals, Vatican upholds confession secrecy
FROM THE AP: The Holy See’s
Apostolic Penitentiary, a tribunal dealing with absolution and confessional matters, reiterated the secrecy obligation for clergy in a six-page document approved by the pope and made public Monday.
“Every political or legislative initiative aimed at ‘forcing’ the inviolability of the sacramental seal would constitute an unacceptable offense against the freedom of the church, which doesn’t receive its very legitimization from any single country but from God,” the document said. Such initiatives would also violate religious freedom, it asserted.
In a written comment on the document, Tribunal head Cardinal Mauro Piacenza cautioned against interpreting the statement as any slackening in Pope Francis’ recently reiterated resolve to combat clergy sex abuse and cover-ups by superiors.
CLICK TO READ ALL ABOUT THE PEDOPHILE PRIEST SEX SCANDALS IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
“It’s opportune to make clear that the text of the statement cannot and doesn’t want to be in any way a justification or a form of tolerance of the abhorrent cases of abuse perpetrated by members of the clergy,” Piacenza wrote. “No compromise is acceptable in promoting the protection of minors and of vulnerable persons and in preventing and combating every form of abuse, in the spirit of that which has been constantly reiterated (by Francis),” the cardinal wrote.
But Piacenza stressed that confessional secrecy cannot be compared to “professional secrecy” enjoyed by the likes of lawyers and doctors. Thus, the cardinal said, confessional secrecy cannot be subject to the legal exceptions for occasionally lifting professional secrecy.
His statement appeared meant as a preventative parry to any prosecutor’s efforts to demand revelation of a penitent’s confession in court cases or investigations. The tribunal document also acknowledged what it called a “certain worrisome ‘negative prejudice’ toward the Catholic church.”
It attributed such prejudice in part to “tensions that can occur inside the very hierarchy” of the church, an apparent reference to clashing factions among cardinals and bishops during Francis’ papacy, pitting more conservative camps against less conservative ones. And it cited the “recent scandals of abuse, horribly perpetrated by some members of the clergy.”
Cardinal Piacenza noted that Francis himself earlier this year called confessional secrecy indispensable, and quoted the pontiff as saying “no human power has jurisdiction” over that secrecy. Piacenza said the tribunal felt it “urgent to recall in the first place the absolute inviolability of the sacramental secrecy, which is based on divine right and admits no exception.”
In its document, the tribunal also warned against “the judgment of public opinion” and “reckless judgments” amid the eagerness by people, including faithful and even clergy, for scandalous news.
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