'Will not sit idly by': DOJ sues to prevent Catholic priests from violating secrecy of confessional by having to report

[dpibel]

61. Recognizing the futility of disputing with a true believer...

1. Assuming you will not dismiss out of hand Wikipedia, you might find this article illuminating. Not sure that some magic thing happened 14 years ago that fixed everything.

2. It is charmingly optimistic to think that something so widespread was just solved by making some rules. You'll note that, at your self-link, you say that the charter was approved in 2002. Even by your own optimistic estimate that everything's been real good for 14 years, that leaves a number of years when the mighty charter had, apparently, no effect.

2. "700+ priests" may be a bit optimistic. See, e.g., the Wiki article which notes, "According to a 2004 research study by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 4,392 Catholic priests and deacons in active ministry between 1950 and 2002 have been plausibly (neither withdrawn nor disproven) accused of underage sexual abuse by 10,667 individuals."

But the actual number is not the point. Your argument supported by that number is fallacious. Because, you see, the existence of sex offenders is not the point. You claim that, just as our society at large contains sex offenders, but is not condemned, thus we should not condemn Catholicism for including sex offenders.

But our society does not, as official acts of those in charge, hide sexual abuse or move known sexual abusers to new places where their proclivities are not known. That is what the Catholic Church's authorities (bishops and cardinals) did. If you cannot see the difference, I cannot help you.

3. Sending me a link that allows me to verify that you are accurately quoting the Bible is a lot like me posting "the sky is purple" and, when asked to provide support for the proposition, linking to my own post. Yes. The words you have pasted are the words from the Bible. But, other than the Bible, there's not a lick of evidence that Jesus said any such thing. Assuming, of course, for the sake of argument, the historicity of Jesus.

4. Here's the real deal: The Trump administration is trying to kill a Washington state law requiring priests to report confessed sexual abuse. You seem to be saying that the Church is already totes on board with that idea. If that is so, then I'm sure the Church will be right there telling Pam Bondi to back off.

No?

Sanctity of the confessional?

I'm not actually entirely sure you've thought this through.