The sanctity of the confessional is under threat

One of the recommendations of Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse would require clergy told of child abuse in the confessional to be required by law to report it. The inquiry spanned five years and many different kinds of institutions including the Australian Catholic Church, and found tens of thousands of child victims The Australian government must now decide how to respond to the recommendations. But one of them - to require clergy to report child abuse told in the sanctity of the confessional means breaking that seal of silence. Marist Father Neil Vaney explains what the sanctity of the confessional means to the Catholic Church.