Seal of confessional no excuse - PM

Cardinal George Pell told journalists that 'The Seal of Confession is inviolable' when one priest talks to another under confession.

PRIME Minister Julia Gillard says using the seal of the Catholic confessional to cover up child abuse is a ''sin of omission'' because all adults have a duty of care towards children.

It comes after Opposition Leader Tony Abbott today supported calls for priests to break the confidentiality of confession if child sex abuse is admitted to them.

Ms Gillard says the terms of reference for the federal royal commission announced on Monday haven't been set, and nor has the way evidence will be gathered and witnesses questioned.

''That is going to be a matter for the royal commissioners we appoint,'' she told reporters in Brisbane.

She said all parties including institutions and victims would be consulted carefully on the terms of reference.

When asked if the commission should examine the Catholic Church's seal of the confessional, the Prime Minister agreed that it wasn't good enough that some adults had been ''averting their eyes'' from the problem of child abuse.

''Adults have got a duty of care towards children,'' Ms Gillard said.

''It's not good enough for people to engage in sin of omission and not act when a child is at risk.''

Cardinal George Pell with a copy of the Catholic Church's booklet on dealing with allegations of sexual abuse. Picture: Craig Greenhill

Earlier, Mr Abbott said everyone must obey the law.

"I think that everyone has to obey the law that's what everyone has to do," Mr Abbott, a Catholic, said in Brisbane.

"There are various requirements on people if they become aware of sexual offences against children, those legal requirements must be adhered to.

"The law is no respecter of persons everyone has to obey the law regardless of what job they're doing, regardless of what position they hold,"

This included priests, he said.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon weighed into the debate today, saying the idea that the confessional stays confidential even when people use it to admit to crimes is "medieval''. 

Australia's most senior Catholic, Cardinal George Pell, has insisted "the seal of confession is inviolable'' even if a priest confesses to child sex abuse.

Tony Abbott says 'there are various requirements on people if they become aware of sexual offences against children, those legal requirements must be adhered to'. Picture: Jamie Hanson

Senator Nick Xenophon said that was an anachronism.

"This is a medieval law that needs to change in the 21st century,'' he told reporters in Canberra.

"Church law, canon law, should not be above the law of the land.''

Mr Abbott wouldn't be drawn on whether laws were adequate in every state in Australia to ensure this process was followed by priests.

"I'm not a lawyer and we're at the beginning of a process here (the royal commission) which the Prime Minister announced on Monday let's see where the proces takes us," Mr Abbott said.

His comments came as a Victorian priest took Australia's most senior Catholic,  Cardinal George Pell, to task over claims the media was exaggerating instances of sex abuse within the Catholic Church.

 Father Kevin Dillon, of the St Mary of the Angels Catholic Parish in Geelong, said  the media had played an important role in its focus on child sex abuse in the Church.

Geelong priest Father Kevin Dillon said today most Catholics are grateful to the media for focussing on something they find shameful and disgraceful. Picture: Geelong Advertiser

"I believe most Catholics are probably rather grateful to the media for a focus on something which they find enormously shameful and greatly distressing," Father Dillon told ABC Radio.

"I think the media has played a very important and very positive role in all of this."

Father Dillon said a review of the church was needed.

"It's matter of distress to Catholics that it's taken a royal commission and this long for an external examination of the process to be put forward," he said.

Cardinal Pell said he hoped the wide-ranging royal commission would actually stop a "smear campaign" against his church.

Father Dillon's comments come as senior MPs on both sides of politics lashed out at comments by Cardinal Pell that priests should not have to report abuse if the details of the crime are heard in confession.

Cardinal Pell, said yesterday "the Seal of Confession is inviolable" even if a priest confesses to child sex abuse.

Cardinal George Pell says he hopes the royal commission will uncover the truth about child sex abuse.

But senior opposition frontbencher Christopher Pyne said priests have a responsibility to report crimes to police even if the details are given to them in a confession.

Mr Pyne, a Catholic, said the laws of the nation come before canon law.

"If a priest hears in a confessional a crime, especially a crime against a minor, the priest has the responsibility in my view to report that to the appropriate authorities," Mr Pyne told ABC Radio.

"In this case the police, because the church nor the priests should be above the law."

Cardinal Pell said priests should avoid hearing confession from colleagues suspected of committing child sex abuse to avoid being bound by the Seal of Confession.

Federal Attorney-General Nicola Roxon said the community found the idea of a priest not reporting child abuse if told in a confession to be "really abhorrent".

"We really need to look carefully that there aren't a different set of rules that apply," Ms Roxon told ABC television.

"Child sexual abuse is a crime.

"It should be reported, and I know the Royal Commission is going to have some very complex issues to deal with, but we can't afford to say that should not be on the table because clearly that is a concern."

Ms Roxon said there was need for several commissioners and the inquiry would definitely take "years, not weeks and months".

Cardinal Pell yesterday welcomed the royal commission into sexual abuse and said he would front the commission if called on - but openly advised priests to avoid hearing confessions of sexual abuse from fellow priests to help preserve the sanctity of the confessional.

"If the priest knows beforehand about such a situation, the priest should refuse to hear the confession," Cardinal Pell said yesterday.

"I would never hear the confession of a priest who's suspected of such a thing."

Opposition frontbencher Scott Morrison said that, as a rule, child sexual abuse should have been reported to authorities.

"Where crimes are committed, the police should know about them," Mr Morrison said.

But he would not be drawn on whether priests who had heard accounts of abuse from the confession box should be forced to break the confessional seal.

"These are matters that I suspect will be dealt with in the course of the royal commission and I don't want to pre-empt that," Mr Morrison said.

"I think there are a whole range of serious issues here, and I think getting into a public commentary on each and every one before the royal commission has even got out of the gate (is not) the right way to handle it."

NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell agreed that priests should be subject to mandatory reporting laws the same way doctors are.

"The law of the land when it comes to particularly mandatory reporting around issues to do with children should be applied to everyone equally," Mr O'Farrell told ABC radio.

"I just can't fathom that a member of the clergy who's engaged in abuse of children and who confesses that abuse even within the confessional will not have it reported to police."

Mr O'Farrell said he hoped the royal commission would look at the issue of the sanctity of confession in relation to child abuse.

The premier said unless it was clear there was "no safe house" where paedophiles could confess and get on with their lives "I suspect we will come back in 10 years time and nothing may have changed". 

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