Folia Theologica et Canonica 11. 33/25 (2022)
Ius canonicum
MANDATORY REPORTING LEGISLATION AND THE SEAL OF CONFESSION... 147 the offences for which penance was employed were of a graver or a lighter nature, formal absolution was ordinarily conveyed in a public function on Holy Thursday.138 ft is evident that for St. Augustine and other Church Fathers, the reconciliation (“remission in and through the Church”) accomplished by the bishop in the Church (in virtue of the power of binding and loosing) is also reconciliation with God.139 St. Augustine explicitly says that this was the common practice in “all”140 local churches.141 (to be continued) Abstract Lately, with the adoption of mandatory reporting laws in some US states (North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, and Texas) “any person” is considered to be mandatory reporter; in others the clergy are listed explicitly as mandatory reporters, whereas in still others - for example, in Washington State - clergy are not listed and the clergy-penitent privilege is affirmed within the reporting laws. Despite the existence of mandatory reporting laws in the United States, the clergy-penitent privilege seems to be more protected there than in other countries using British common law. As we observed in the previous article, the clergy-penitent privilege appears to be under greater threat in the British common law realm—in countries such as the UK, Australia, Ireland and New Zealand and the USA—than in the European civil law. The recent discoveries of abuse in most of those countries greatly hurt the reputation of the Church, since the cover up was mainly perpetrated in order to protect the reputation of the Church rather than to protect the victims. Therefore, an outrage on the part of these countries is understandable; but it should not lead to another injustice, violation of religious freedom and abuse of the sacrament of confession. Goran Jovicic St. Patricks Seminary & University Menlo Park, CA goran.jovicic@stpatricksseminary.org 138 Ep. 25: 7. o’ “Therefore Christ said to the ministers of His Church: ‘What you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven’; you by whom hands are imposed on penitents.” Morini, G., Miscellanea Augustiniana, Roma 1930. 357; cf. Riga, P., Sin and Penance, 95. 140 Lat. “in omnibus ecclesiis”: Ep. 265: PL LV. 108. 141 Augustine, Ep. 265: PL LV. 108.
