French Parliament rejects amendment that would force priests to break Seal of Confession

PARIS (LifeSiteNews) — France will not introduce a law that would force priests to break the Seal of Confession.

As LifeSiteNews reported, there has been a push in France to legally abolish the Seal of Confession in the wake of the clerical abuse scandal. The government wanted to force priests to report on sexual abuse cases that they learned of during Confession, in contradiction to canon law.

The current debate has emerged against the backdrop of the “Bétharram Affaire,” a case of physical and sexual abuse that took place over decades at the Catholic school Notre‑Dame de Bétharram run by the Fathers of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of Bétharram in southwestern France. Receiving considerable media attention, the case prompted renewed scrutiny of institutional responses to allegations of impropriety and criminality involving minors.

However, to gain unanimous support in Parliament, the amendment targeting the clergy was scrapped at the last moment, and the bill aimed at protecting children from violence at school was passed without it.

As French newspaper Le Monde reports, the bill received the votes of all 187 lawmakers present in the Chamber.

The bill seeks to strengthen oversight of those likely to be in contact with children in schools and extracurricular settings and to increase regulation of private schools.

Right-wing parties and French Catholics protested the plan to force priests to break the seal of confession. On May 29, the French Bishops’ Conference publicly expressed “deep concern” in the national newspaper Le Figaro over the proposed law, saying that some provisions could undermine fundamental freedoms, including the confidentiality of Confession.

Le Monde described the bill’s passage after the removal of the amendment that would threaten legal action against priests who do not break the Seal of Confession as a compromise.

Recent reports have shown that the sexual abuse crisis of minors in France has certainly not been exclusively a problem of Catholic institutions. During a police raid last month on the Saint-Dominique preschool (a public institution), 16 people were arrested and taken into custody on charges of varying nature and severity, including “rape of minors,” “sexual assault of minors,” and “violence against minors.”

For months, parents and politicians in Paris have been shaken by reports of violence and abuse in the city’s after-school care centers, which were not always thoroughly investigated. The issue of abuse was recently a topic in the capital’s local election campaign.

Investigations have been launched into 84 kindergartens, around 20 elementary schools, and 10 after-school centers in Paris.