|
?:reviewBody
|
-
In 2017, after a five-year investigation into child sexual abuse within the Catholic Church in Australia, a specially-appointed Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Abuse published their findings. The report included a section on criminal justice reform, including a recommendation that clergy members become legally-mandated reporters of abuse, even if they obtain the information during the rite of confession. The notorious fake news web site Neon Nettle reported that Archbishop Denis Hart, a leading member of the Catholic hierarchy in Australia, had rejected the confessional proposal and shockingly, described sexual abuse as a spiritual encounter: Neon Nettle correctly reported that the commission recommended that there should be no excuse, protection nor privilege in relation to religious confessions when it comes to the legal obligation to report suspected child abuse. However, the claim that Archbishop Hart called sexual abuse a spiritual encounter with God is blatantly false. Despite that detail, the claim has been the basis of many subsequent republications and reiterations of Neon Nettle's article — including one published by the equally dubious YourNewsWire.com — in February 2018. In reality, Archbishop Hart said that confession, not sexual abuse, was a spiritual encounter with God through the priest. In a statement released in August 2017, Hart wrote: It is true, however, that Archbishop Hart told Australian media that he would be willing to face criminal conviction and go to jail rather than report to police information about abuse that he had received in confession: In its proposal to change Australian law and remove the confessional exemption from the obligation to report child sexual abuse, the Royal Commission said the right to religious freedom is not absolute, and should be limited in the interests of public safety:
(en)
|
![[This page as RDF]](http://data.gesis.org/claimskg/static/rdf-icon.gif){kind=icon}