THE Australian Council of Civil Liberties has spoken out in favour of maintaining laws that support the confidentiality of the Sacrament of Confession.
The council’s national president, Terry O’Gorman of Brisbane, spoke publicly on the issue after revelations that convicted paedophile and former Catholic priest Michael McArdle confessed his crimes more than 1500 times to 30 different priests over a 25-year period.
These revelations earlier this month prompted calls in the media for priests to be compelled to divulge such confessions of child abuse to authorities.
Mr O’Gorman said the Australian Council of Civil Liberties’ view was that the law should not be changed to compel priests to reveal to courts the contents of a confession.
‘There is significant social benefit to be gained from a person who has engaged in paedophilia to confess it in the hope of getting help,’ he said.
To change the law to force priests to divulge such confessions to authorities ‘would simply mean that the decreasing pool of people from whom a paedophile can get assistance … diminishes even further’.
McArdle, 68, is serving a six-year prison term after pleading guilty to molesting 14 boys and two girls over a 22-year period while serving in Rockhampton diocese.
Mr O’Gorman said a McArdle was unlikely to occur again because he was typical of the priests of the era who entered the seminary ‘at an incredibly young age, often at 15, when they had little life experience’.
‘Tests applied to people entering the priesthood now is light years from what was in place when McArdle entered the priesthood,’ he said.
