Catholic officials in Ireland object to child abuse disclosure law

Officials of the Catholic church in Ireland object to a new law that mandates the reporting of child abuse. From the BBC:

The Irish Children's Minister Frances Fitzgerald said that priests who are given admissions of child abuse during the sacrament of confession will not be exempt from new rules on mandatory reporting. During his homily to worshippers at Knock shrine in County Mayo, on Sunday, the archbishop of Armagh and primate of all Ireland said: "Freedom to participate in worship and to enjoy the long-established rites of the church is so fundamental that any intrusion upon it is a challenge to the very basis of a free society."

The discussion seems to center on future abuses revealed during confession, but I wonder if it's really about the ongoing use of the sacrament to hide internal discussions of undisclosed abuses from the possibility of legal scrutiny.

Child protection measures apply regardless of religious rules [BBC]

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Alaska: Mother convicted of child abuse after taping “hot sauce torture video” for Dr. Phil Show

A mother in Alaska has been convicted of abusing her adopted Russian son by "pouring hot sauce into the crying child's mouth and not allowing him to spit it out for more than a minute," then forcing him to stand in a cold shower.

She staged the incident as an audition tape for a segment of the Dr. Phil show titled "Mommy Confessions," and ordered her ten-year-old daughter to record the video on a Flip handheld digital video camcorder.

Her bid for TV fame was successful: "Days later, she was on her way to Los Angeles to be on the show," and the episode aired in November, 2010.

The child is now in therapy for a psychological disorder.

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