Folia Theologica et Canonica 10. 32/24 (2021)
Ius canonicum
76 GORAN JOVICIC sexual assaults within the Catholic Church were committed, not by clergy or monks, but by lay people.”19 Among the report of 45 proposals by the Commission, there was a request for the Church to reconsider the seal of confession in relation to abuse. Besides expressing his outrage and determination to unmask the covering up mentality in the Church,20 Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, the president of the French bishops’ conference defended the inviolability of the seal of confession with very strong words: “The seal of confession is imposed on us, and in this it is stronger than the laws of the Republic.”21 Shortly after that the French bishops ‘conference has seemingly tried to walk back the straightforward comments and to some extent a “clumsy wording”22 of the Archbishop of Reims, who recently rightly reiterated that the inviolability of the seal of confession, deriving from divine law, supersedes any law of the French Fifth Republic directing that it be broken.23 During an exchange with Interior Minister, Gerald Darmanin, Cardinal Parolin Secretary of State, reaffirmed the Church’s stance that the seal of confession is inviolable and emphasized at the same time, the determination of the Church to fight abuse and collaborate fully with civil authorities, but added that this must always be done while “respecting the nature, the mission and the sacramental structure of the Church which are proper to her.”24 19 See Children Abused in French Catholic Church Over 70 Years Says Landmark Report, in https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249185/330000-children-abused-in-french-catholic-church-over-70-years-says-landmark-report (consulted: 11.16.2021). 20 “To those who have been victims of such acts by priests, religious or others in the Church, I express my shame, my horror, my determination to act with them so that the refusal to see, the refusal to hear, the desire to hide or mask the facts, the reluctance to denounce them publicly, disappear from the attitudes of the ecclesial authorities, of priests and pastoral workers, of all the faithful.” See Children Abused in French Catholic Church Over 70 Years Says Landmark Report, in https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/249185/330000-children-abused-infrench-catholic-church-over-70-years-says-landmark-report and the Original text in French: https://eglise.catholique.fr/sengager-dans-la-societe/lutter-contre-pedophilie/519242-reception-du-rapport-de-la-commission-independante-des-abus-sexuels-dans-leglise-allocution-demgr-eric-de-moulins-beaufort/ (consulted: 11.11.2021). 21 Ibid. https://eglise.catholique.fr/sengager-dans-la-societe/lutter-contre-pedophilie/519242-reception-du-rapport-de-la-commission-independante-des-abus-sexuels-dans-leglise-allocutionde-mgr-eric-de-moulins-beaufort/ (consulted: 11.11.2021). 22 See French Catholci Leader Discusses Clumsy Wording On confessional Seal with Interior Minister, in https://www.ncregister.com/cna/french-catholic-leader-discusses-clumsy-wording-onconfessional-seal-with-interior-minister (consulted: 11.11.2021). 23 See French Bishops Waffle on Confessional Seal, in https://www.catholicculture.org/commentary/french-bishops-waffle-on-confessional-seal/ (consulted: 11.11.2021). 24 See Parolin to French Prime Minister: Fight Against Abuse Must Respect Seal of Confession, in https://www.pillarcatholic.eom/p/cardinal-parolin-to-french-prime (consulted: 11.11.2021).
