Angelus News | May 17, 2019 | Vol. 4 No. 18

NEW WORLD
OF FAITH
BY ARCHBISHOP JOSÉ H. GOMEZ
Confession is sacred
Saint Mateo Correa Magallanes was
a priest and a Knight of Columbus.
During the persecution of the Church
in Mexico in 1927, he had a choice
to make.
He was in the jails hearing confessions
from prisoners rounded up by
the government. Now, a general was
pressing a gun to his head, threatening
to kill him if he did not disclose what
prisoners had told him in confession.
Mateo said, “You can do that, but
just know that a priest must keep the
seal of confession. I am willing to die.”
Shortly after that, he was taken to the
outskirts of town and killed.
Every priest takes his obligations as a
confessor seriously.
We know it is a beautiful duty and
a privilege to guide souls and grant
forgiveness in God’s name. Mateo
and many priests down through the
centuries have chosen to suffer rather
than betray the confidentiality of what
they hear in confession.
Confession is sacred — to every
priest and every Catholic.
That is why I am greatly disturbed
by a bill that is moving through the
California legislature. Senate Bill 360
would order priests to disclose information
concerning the sexual abuse
of minors that they hear in confession.
Sometimes the best intentions can
lead to bad legislation. That is the
case with SB 360.
Child sexual abuse is a horrible sin
and crime that afflicts every area of
our society. In the Catholic Church,
we have grappled with this scandal for
many years.
Across the state, dioceses have put in
place policies and programs to keep
children safe. We fingerprint and
do background checks on Church
personnel, we have staff who help victims,
and we have strict protocols for
dealing with allegations against priests
and others who work for the Church.
As a result, new cases of child
sexual abuse by priests are rare in the
Archdiocese of Los Angeles and other
dioceses in California.
Every case is one too many. And the
Church remains vigilant in protecting
children and we are committed
to helping all victim-survivors find
healing.
But from a public policy standpoint,
if the goal is to prevent child sexual
abuse, it does not make sense to single
out Catholic priests and the Sacrament
of Penance and Reconciliation, which
is the formal name for confession.
Catholics believe that in the confessional
we can tell God everything that
is on our heart and seek his healing
mercy. The priest is only an instrument;
he stands in the “person of
Christ.” We confess our sins — not to
a man but to God.
The privacy of that intimate conversation
— our ability to speak with total
honesty from our lips to God’s ear —
is absolutely vital to our relationship
with God.
This legislation, then, is a mortal
threat to the religious freedom of
every Catholic.
What is more alarming is that this
bill is moving forward without any
evidence that it will protect children.
Priests are already “mandated reporters”
in California. That means we
are required by law to report cases of
sexual abuse that we suspect, except if
we hear about it in the confessional.
SB 360’s sponsor makes a sweeping
claim that “the clergy-penitent
privilege has been abused on a large
scale, resulting in the unreported and
systemic abuse of thousands of children
across multiple denominations
and faiths.”
That is simply not true. Hearings on
the bill have not presented a single
case — in California or anywhere else
— where this kind of crime could
have been prevented if a priest had
disclosed information he had heard in
confession. Why is no one asking the
bill’s sponsor to provide evidence for
his accusations against the Church?
SB 360 claims to solve a crisis that
does not exist.
The fact is, child sexual abuse is not
a sin that people confess to priests in
the confessional. Those who counsel
such predators tell us that, sadly, many
of them are secretive and manipulative
and cannot comprehend the
grave evil of their actions.
It is far more likely that journalists
and lawyers would hear admissions
about such crimes. Yet this bill does
not propose doing away with attorney-client
privilege or the protection
of journalists’ sources. It only targets
Catholic priests.
SB 360 should be voted down. And
we should continue working together
to seek effective ways to fight this
scourge of child sexual abuse in our
society.
Pray for me this week, and I will pray
for you.
And let us pray for our priests — with
gratitude for their courage in opening
the doors of God’s mercy to us in
confession.
And let us ask our Blessed Mother
Mary to help us to bring healing to
every victim-survivor of abuse and
help us to build a society where every
child is loved, protected, and safe.
To read more columns by Archbishop José H. Gomez or to subscribe, visit www.angelusnews.com.
May 17, 2019 • ANGELUS • 3