CAREFUL consideration needs to be given as to whether abolishing the seal of the confessional might result in the reporting of fewer abuse cases, the Bishop of Manchester, Dr David Walker, told the House of Lords on Tuesday, during a discussion of proposals to introduce mandatory reporting for child sexual abuse.
In a press release to the Church Times on Friday, he made clear that he had offered no personal position on the difficulty, but said: “We cannot simply assume that abolishing the seal of the confessional will result in more relatively than fewer cases being reported.
“I remain able to support whatever shall be the very best for shielding children, and hope that debate on the forthcoming Bill in Parliament will enable us to realize that end.”
On Tuesday, Dr Walker told peers that there was an “arguable case” that the seal of the confessional allowed individuals who had been abused “to make a form of protected disclosure, which then often would result in them being helped to make a more public disclosure and permit a perpetrator to be taken to justice”.
The seal is the priest’s obligation under canon law to listen to an individual’s confession in complete confidence. It implies that nothing that the priest is told in that context shall be repeated or disclosed under any circumstances.
Dr Walker said that he hoped that there could be “careful discussions with religious bodies as to precisely where the seal of the confessional will slot in with this. . . I do know my Catholic colleagues will particularly be concerned around that.”
Lord Hanson of Flint, responding on behalf of the Government, said that he had received representation from churches on the difficulty.
“I actually have given a commitment to debate that further with those from the churches who made contact with me,” Lord Flint said, and expressed hope that this is able to be further debated because the Crime and Policing Bill went through Parliament.
In 2022, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) advised that mandatory reporting of kid sexual abuse needs to be enshrined in UK law. In January this yr, the Home Secretary, Yvette Cooper, pledged to fulfil this advice (News, 7 January).
Later that month, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Sarah Mullally, told the House of Lords that the safeguarding “reset” within the Church of England will need to have mandatory reporting “at its heart”.
She was speaking in a debate on a Private Member’s Bill that will require the providers of certain activities, including religious organisations, to report knowledge or suspicions of abuse to the local authority (News, 24 January).
In February, the General Synod approved an updated safeguarding code of practice that features an injunction that a disclosure “should be referred to the police or social services and the relevant PSO [parish safeguarding officer] or Safeguarding Officer inside one working day” (General Synod Digest, 28 February).
ON FRIDAY, Dr Walker said that a part of the function of bishops within the House of Lords was to be a “voice for faith in Parliament”.
Traditionalist clergy within the Church of England have previously asked that mandatory reporting of kid abuse not be applied to statements made during confession (News, 16 August 2023).
Safeguarding guidelines on the web site of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales state that “in case you are in any role throughout the Catholic Church in England and Wales, you have to refer allegations on to the safeguarding office on your diocese or religious congregation, or on to the Police”.
The lead RC bishop for safeguarding, the Rt Revd Paul Mason, who’s a board member of the Catholic Safeguarding Standards Agency (CSSA), said in 2022 that compromising the seal of the confessional might remove a chance to encourage an abuser to go to the police.
“If we were to have mandatory reporting, we might haven’t any access in any respect to someone who would enter a confessional box to admit such a sin. At the moment, we’ve such a chance,” he said.
The priest existed within the sacrament of the confession solely as a conduit to God, he said. “We simply couldn’t turn a priest from a minister of God into an agent of the state.”
The final report of IICSA also called for a national redress scheme for victims of kid sexual abuse, but Lord Flint said on Tuesday that the Government was “not yet in a position to commit” itself to such a scheme, referring to an forthcoming spending review.
Dr Walker spoke in regards to the redress scheme arrange by the Church of England, and suggested that it was essential that bodies that “did fallacious” — either “in the unique abuse, colluding with a cover-up, or failing to take a disclosure seriously” — should bear the prices.
It was announced this week that Dr Walker would succeed the Bishop of St Albans, Dr Alan Smith, as convener of the Lords Spiritual.
He said that he hoped to proceed Dr Smith’s work in “encouraging and mentoring recent arrivals” to the Lords, “in addition to being a voice for us amongst different parties and groupings” within the House of Lords.
“There are many challenges facing us as a rustic, and I think that bishops have an important role to play in working for the common good, in addition to fulfilling our spiritual and constitutional role in Parliament,” he said.
Dr Smith has been convener since 2022, but will step down on his retirement at the top of May (News, 8 January).
Church of England bishops defended their position within the House of Lords last month, after amendments were tabled to the Government’s House of Lords (Hereditary Peers) Bill to remove their right to 26 seats (News, 19 March).
Baroness Smith, on behalf of the Government, said: “We welcome the presence of the Bishops here. . . There is a spot within the House for the Bishops in the intervening time.”
