/r/50501 Mirror

Here's the thing - priests are perfectly willing to go to jail over this. The seal of confession is extremely important to Catholic practice, and a priest would rather go to jail than break it. I am not a Catholic, but the seal of confession has been long respected by US law as it pertains to religious freedom, and it's such a long established part of Catholic practice that it's hard to imagine Catholic life without it. I think this is a serious blow to religious freedom, even if I don't personally agree with the practice it is attacking. Realistically all this will do, even in the "best case" scenario where priests actually comply, is make people not confess to these things in the first place. From a civil standpoint this is essentially equivalent to the situation where confession is sealed, but according to Catholic beliefs this is horrible as it removes the possibility of redemption for the perpetrator. Now you or I might think that child abuse is an unforgivable sin worthy of eternal damnation with no possibility of forgiveness, but that's not what Catholics believe. They believe that everyone should have a chance to confess their sins and atone for them, which is impossible without telling a priest about them.