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September 4th, 2011
11:44 AM ET

Ireland ramps up battle with Vatican over child abuse

Ireland stepped up its battle with the Roman Catholic Church over child abuse Sunday, with Justice Minister Alan Shatter vowing to pass a law requiring priests to report suspicions of child abuse, even if they learn about them in confession.

The Catholic Church regards information learned in confession as completely confidential.

But under the law proposed by Shatter, priests could be prosecuted for failing to tell the police about crimes disclosed in the confession box.

Shatter said in a statement through a spokesman last week that priests' failure to report what they learn in confession "that has led sexual predators into believing that they have impunity and facilitated pedophiles preying on children and destroying their lives."

Read the full story

- Newsdesk editor, The CNN Wire

Filed under: Catholic Church • Ireland • Sex abuse • Vatican

soundoff (164 Responses)
  1. Ben

    Yeah right public relations stunt to improve their image or at least attemt to improve it. This will not have any effect at all. They are just saying something because they have to. There are still countless catholic pedophiles running wild with your children throughout the world and you are still too ignorant and too blind to care. There is no God. try reality for once and you might be happier without all that guilt and fear of imaginary people. delusional morons.

    September 28, 2011 at 10:57 pm |
  2. Ida

    Maybe someone can perform an excorsism instead.LOL

    September 13, 2011 at 4:06 pm |
  3. Reality

    Ending all the Christian cover-ups on a global basis:

    The Apostles' Creed 2011: (updated by yours truly based on the studies of NT historians and theologians during the past 200 years)

    Should I believe in a god whose existence cannot be proven
    and said god if he/she/it exists resides in an unproven,
    human-created, spirit state of bliss called heaven???

    I believe there was a 1st century CE, Jewish, simple,
    preacher-man who was conceived by a Jewish carpenter
    named Joseph living in Nazareth and born of a young Jewish
    girl named Mary. (Some say he was a mamzer.)

    Jesus was summarily crucified for being a temple rabble-rouser by
    the Roman troops in Jerusalem serving under Pontius Pilate,

    He was buried in an unmarked grave and still lies
    a-mouldering in the ground somewhere outside of
    Jerusalem.

    Said Jesus' story was embellished and "mythicized" by
    many semi-fiction writers. A bodily resurrection and
    ascension stories were promulgated to compete with the
    Caesar myths. Said stories were so popular that they
    grew into a religion known today as Catholicism/Christianity
    and featuring dark-age, daily wine to blood and bread to body rituals
    called the eucharistic sacrifice of the non-atoning Jesus.

    Amen
    ==================================================================================

    September 6, 2011 at 4:18 pm |
    • gerald

      Are you sure about all that reality? If your wrong then I guess your as much a goofball as you think we are. Oh wait your a goofball anyway.

      September 8, 2011 at 12:08 pm |
  4. Anton LaVey (ACTS)

    herbert juarez- get help
    .
    Schizophrenia is a mental disorder that makes it difficult to tell the difference between real and unreal experiences, to think logically, to have normal emotional responses, and to behave normally in social situations.
    As the illness continues, psychotic symptoms develop:
    • False beliefs or thoughts that are not based in reality (delusions)
    • Hearing, seeing, or feeling things that are not there (hallucinations)

    September 6, 2011 at 4:12 pm |
    • herbert juarez

      anton lavey apr. 11, 1930-oct 29, 1997
      religion satanism (church of satan)
      ...and you have the balls to suggest schizophrenia to me? Get a life you no talent hack!

      September 6, 2011 at 8:51 pm |
    • Anton LaVey

      herbert juarez

      anton lavey apr. 11, 1930-oct 29, 1997
      religion satanism (church of satan)
      ...and you have the balls to suggest schizophrenia to me? Get a life you no talent hack!

      --
      God created everything, including sin. Sin comes from god, some of us view such things as gifts. Jesus is such dull company. And from what satan tells me, he was a whiny little b!tch when the romans were slapping him around. Jesus has now turned into a girlishfreak walking around showing everybody his hole in his side. Satan says he doesn't even invite jesus to his parties anymore, freaks all the guests out.

      September 7, 2011 at 2:59 pm |
    • herbert juarez

      You will soon enough find out what God has created, and it wasn't sin, that was your lost masters creation.

      September 9, 2011 at 10:37 am |
    • Colin

      Mutant gaints who will kill humanity. That's what god created, right Herbie.

      September 9, 2011 at 10:38 am |
    • herbert juarez

      You lie like a rug, right colin?

      September 9, 2011 at 10:42 am |
    • J.W

      herbert and Colin are like a married couple on here. Maybe there is a clergy member on here that can perform a gay marriage

      September 9, 2011 at 10:47 am |
    • herbert juarez

      @jw bite me

      September 9, 2011 at 10:48 am |
    • Colin

      JW – lol. Herbie, you know deep down you love me.

      September 9, 2011 at 10:50 am |
    • herbert juarez

      you always hurt the one you love.

      September 9, 2011 at 10:53 am |
  5. WIlliam Demuth

    Seize their assets.

    Imprison their leaders

    Execute the guilty

    September 6, 2011 at 11:29 am |
    • gerald

      Sounds like Russia or Communist China not to long ago.

      September 6, 2011 at 2:40 pm |
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About this blog

The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.