Catholic Bishops in Australia have adamantly rejected a call to break the seal of the confessional in cases where penitents have admitted child sexual abuse. They were responding to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse and announced they will comply with 98 percent of the Commission’s recommendations, but on removing the seal of the confessional, their report labeled the suggestion as “inimical to religious liberty,” not just for the Catholic Church but for other religions as well.

The bishops indicated a willingness to consider changing the Church’s requirement of priestly celibacy, and to amend canon law to remove the requirement for destroying documents after a cleric has died or following ten years after a sentencing.

On priestly celibacy, the Bishops’report noted that “the Royal Commission made no finding of a causal connection between celibacy and child sexual abuse,” though it added that “voluntary celibacy is a long- established and positive practice of the Church in both East and West, particularly for bishops and religious life.”

“Inadequate initial and continuing formation of priests and religious for celibate living may have contributed to a heightened risk of child sexual abuse, but not celibacy as a state of life in and of itself,” it continued.