Bishops Defend Confidentiality of Confession

18/5/2010

The Bishop of the Lutheran Diocese of Kuopio Wille Riekkinen and Archbishop Leo of Finland’s Orthodox Church have both defended the confidentiality of confession, reports the newspaper Savon Sanomat. They rejected calls being heard to abridge the requirement of priests to keep the secrets of confession with legal requirements to report cases of paedophilia.

Archbishop Leo took the stand that the obligation of priests to maintain the confidentiality of confession should be maintained under all circumstances. He said that discussions on the matter can be held if the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs so wishes, however, he also pointed out that priests already have an obligation to inform officials of cases of possible child abuse.

The Bishop of the Lutheran Diocese of Kuopio Wille Riekkinen also defended the traditional secrecy of confession. The same position was recently taken by Lutheran Archbishop Emeritus Jukka Paarma who told the Finnish News Agency STT on Saturday that breaking the confidentiality of confession would not necessarily help investigations into paedophilia. Riekkinen says that such a move would radically change the work and the character of the Church.

Basic Services Minister Paula Risikko told the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat on Saturday that when changes were being made to child welfare legislation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland was given time to makes its own change to canon law to allow for exposing paedophilia. However, changes were not made then, and according to Risikko, if the Church does not make alterations itself, it will be done by the State within the framework of laws on child welfare.

Bishop Riekkinen told Savon Sanomat that the Minister’s remark had “perplexing features” and that it would be good to know who she meant when she referred to the Church.

“At least the present bishops were not part of that conversation,” he stated.

YLE

Source: