I was raised Catholic, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done a confession, I’ve been an atheist since before I knew there was a word for it and so I haven’t set foot in a church in decades except for weddings and funerals.
But I’m not entirely clear on how this sort of reporting would be supposed to work
There’s usually some sort of screen between the priest and the person making confession, so you can’t really get a good look at someone to identify them. I’m sure there’s some cases where a priest might be able to identify a regular regular parishioner by voice, but that feels like kind of flimsy evidence. And if someone goes to confession at a different church, or just doesn’t attend or interact with the priest one-on-one regularly, then there’s basically nothing to go on. Are they going to launch an investigation into half the Catholics in town to determine which one of them might be a child molester?
I suppose the priest could get up and try to chase the person out of the church to get a good look at them, but thinking back to the fat old guys who were the priests at the churches I went to growing up, I’m pretty sure I could be out the door and in my car speeding away before the priest managed to stand up in his booth to try to follow me.
If you’re lucky, maybe someone waiting in line for confession could identify them, but the handful of times I went, the church was never very crowded for confession, and I doubt most of the people there were paying too much attention to who was coming and going around them.
If the church has security cameras, I suppose you could identify someone that way, it’s been like 20 years so I can’t remember if my church growing up had cameras or what their current situation may be. If they did, I doubt they were pointed at the confessionals of all places.
Sure, they should be required to report what they can, but I doubt there would be many cases where it would lead to anything actionable.
I was raised Catholic, but it’s been a long time since I’ve done a confession, I’ve been an atheist since before I knew there was a word for it and so I haven’t set foot in a church in decades except for weddings and funerals.
But I’m not entirely clear on how this sort of reporting would be supposed to work
There’s usually some sort of screen between the priest and the person making confession, so you can’t really get a good look at someone to identify them. I’m sure there’s some cases where a priest might be able to identify a regular regular parishioner by voice, but that feels like kind of flimsy evidence. And if someone goes to confession at a different church, or just doesn’t attend or interact with the priest one-on-one regularly, then there’s basically nothing to go on. Are they going to launch an investigation into half the Catholics in town to determine which one of them might be a child molester?
I suppose the priest could get up and try to chase the person out of the church to get a good look at them, but thinking back to the fat old guys who were the priests at the churches I went to growing up, I’m pretty sure I could be out the door and in my car speeding away before the priest managed to stand up in his booth to try to follow me.
If you’re lucky, maybe someone waiting in line for confession could identify them, but the handful of times I went, the church was never very crowded for confession, and I doubt most of the people there were paying too much attention to who was coming and going around them.
If the church has security cameras, I suppose you could identify someone that way, it’s been like 20 years so I can’t remember if my church growing up had cameras or what their current situation may be. If they did, I doubt they were pointed at the confessionals of all places.
Sure, they should be required to report what they can, but I doubt there would be many cases where it would lead to anything actionable.