I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I feel like, if somebody admits to molesting a child to a priest, then the priest should report that to the correct legal people to deal with that.

But on the other hand, as a person who has religious practices ingrained into my behavior, I can understand, it's like I don't imagine that the people that are evil pedophiles are the kind of people to go and brag about it with their pastor.

What the ideal scenario in this case would be is that the pedophile confesses to the priest and then turns themselves in.

The next best scenario would be that the pedophile confesses to the priest, and then at least does not ever commit pedophilia again.

I'm not expecting clemency for pedophiles. Don't get me wrong.

But making it so that pedophiles can't even confess their sins without immediately being hauled off to The nearest jail cell is not going to actually decrease the amount of pedophilia in the world. Instead, it's going to convince pedophiles with religious leanings to accept that their souls are condemned to hell and some of them are gonna choose to go out with a bang.

[–] Sybilvane@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 days ago (1 children)

There's another possible scenario of a child making the confession because they're feeling guilty about the sexual act despite being a victim.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 3 points 3 days ago (1 children)

That is a good point.

I can't imagine that the current confessional protections apply in that scenario.

Any priest who would hear a confession from a child who was sexually assaulted and then hides it should probably go to jail themselves.

[–] desktop_user@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

what if the child doesn't want the abuser to be punished, should the victim not have that right regardless of their mental wellbeing?

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 3 points 2 days ago

Nope. Child sexual abuse doesn't work that way.

Most child sexual abuse is done in a way that is pleasurable for the child, by people the child loves and cares about.

They by default will almost certainly not want their abuser to be punished, but this is the one thing that shouldnt be allowed.

Why?

Because most people who sexually abuse a child do not stop at one child. It's not just about punishing the pedo for the act, it's also about stopping them from pedoing again.

That's why we have sex offender registries.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I'm of a similar mind about mandatory reporting for pedophilic urges from mental health professionals. Obviously actual child abuse is different, but mandatory reporting disincentivizes non-acting pedophiles from sharing their feelings and maybe finding a way to cope. Mandatory reporting replaces the potential for treatment with near-certain societal suicide, so they'll keep those urges bottled up, where they can grow strong enough to drive them to child abuse.

I think it's much better to take a pragmatic approach designed to reduce child abuse, than a zero-tolerance moral approach unmotivated by results.

[–] bizarroland@fedia.io 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

True, even though I get it, the idea that we should abandon our humanity and become bloodthirsty savages with the slightest amount of justification is truly bizarre.

I get that we want to punish evil people and the easiest way to identify an evil person is when they harm children. Despite my wanting to be a better person, I do not feel bad when a father murders a pedophile that victimized their child.

But despite that, I feel like we should at try to do a little better.

[–] agamemnonymous@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 days ago

It's easy to villainize child abusers, because they're definitely villains. I'm talking more about those who haven't harmed children, just feel the urge to. Early detection is key to prevention.