The Catholic Church in Australia refuses to report sexual abuses

The Catholic Church in Australia has refused on Friday laws that would force priests to report sexual abuse if they understood this from the confessional process, which could result in confrontation between the greatest religion in this territory and government.

The Conference of Catholic Bishops Australia, the main Catholic assembly in this country, has announced that it has rejected a recommendation of an official church abuse investigation that the priests be legally obliged to report police abuse if someone were to blame them.

A country in Australia has adopted regulations that turn the case into crime when a priest does not report whether he has knowledge of abuse until the other five states have said they are considering their response.

The “The Assembly continues to support the civil right to protect confession”, this organisation said in a report published on Friday.

Addressing reporters, the president of the Bishops' Assembly, Mark Coleridge, has said that confession “is the non-negotiable element of our religious life because it embodys understanding between the believer and the Lord”.

Last year, Australia has completed a five - year government investigation into child sexual abuses in churches and other institutions, at the time when there has been a global suspicion that churches have protected pedophile priests.

After the investigation, it has been found that seven percent of Catholic priests who have worked in Australia in the 1950-2010 period have been charged with sexual crimes against children and that nearly 1,100 people have initiated claims against the Church of England for 35 years.

The Bishops' Assembly has published its report two weeks after a former Australian bishop has been convicted of hiding abuse and has been ordered to serve a year in prison at home.

Adelaide's convicted former fishhead, Philip Wilson, is said to have failed to report sexual abuse of children.

The accusations of coverage of abuse in the Catholic Church have gained widespread attention, as Pope Francis too has been accused by a United States bishop of having known for years of such abuses committed by an American cardinal and has done nothing in this regard.