ACT Attorney-General Gordon Ramsay has excoriated Catholic Archbishop Christopher Prowse after the head of the Canberra-Goulburn Archdiocese confirmed his priests would not break the seal of confession to report child abuse.
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Archbishop Prowse told parishioners this week the priest hearing the confession would instead encourage the person to report the abuse outside the seal, however he said it was unlikely abuse would be disclosed in this way.
He said separate laws passed last week that would require all adults to report child sexual abuse or face two years in jail made mandatory reporting of confessional allegations "obsolete" and was critical of the focus on the sacred Catholic ritual.
"I see it that the confessional will not become the battleground for criminality and that it will not be necessary for us to have these sorts of hypothetical discussions because it’s already out in the community," Archbishop Prowse said.
But Mr Ramsay - a former Uniting Church minister - was unequivocal in his condemnation of that stance.
"It is irresponsible for the leader of any institution to suggest that their internal rules should take precedence over an ACT law which has been passed specifically to ensure the safety of our children," Mr Ramsay said.
"There is no fair basis for any institution to claim that its internal ways of working should provide an exception to this law.
"I do not believe that the members of the ACT community will accept any attempt by any individual or any institution to not adhere to these laws."
Mr Ramsay said the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse specifically noted the role of the seal of the confessional in "aiding and abetting" abuse, and the new mandatory reporting and failure to report laws would set a "gold standard" for protecting children.
"The ACT government has made it clear that part of our collective response is to effect cultural change. That change must happen in institutions and it must happen with individuals," Mr Ramsay said.
"Keeping our children safe is everyone’s responsibility and we do not believe that there should be any exceptions to that. No institution has demonstrated that they should be exempt. This is an important way of honouring the experience of survivors."
The archbishop's comments were spurred by the expiration of an exemption next Monday on information gleaned from the confessional from mandatory reporting laws.
Ministers of religion are also now counted as mandatory reporters, after the passage of a suite of child protection laws last week.
