Attacks on the Church
Vatican harshly criticizes journalistic manipulation of Confession
Reporters gave pretend confessions and reported on priest responses
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Vatican City, Jan 29, 2007 / 03:54 pm (CNA).- The Vatican newspaper, "L'Osservatore Romano," has sharply criticized an article published by a weekly Italian newspaper based on a series of false confessions throughout Italy, calling it an "attack on religious sensitivities,” and a breach of “professional ethics.”

In order "to reveal" what Italian Catholic priests teach in confessionals on certain matters of ethics and morality, reporters of the weekly "L'Espresso" acted as penitents - an act the Church considers sacrilegious given the sacred nature of the Sacrament of Penance.  

An editorial in L'Osservatore Romano denounced the act, saying it "has desecrated the sacrament...attacking the religious sensibilities of the faithful and deceiving the good faith of priests, seriously wounding the inviolability of pastoral ministry."

The Vatican newspaper called the report "shameless" and a "seriously unheard-of episode" accusing the weekly of crossing "the imposed limits of professional ethics."  

Years ago, the Italian communist newspaper L'Unitá resorted to a similar method "to uncover" the political inclinations of Italian priests.  The sacrilegious experiment, in both occasions, proved to be a useless journalistic abuse, as the results showed that an overwhelming majority of Italian priests teach in the confessional exactly what the Church preaches publicly.

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Subscriber comments:
Published by: Henry
Virginia 02/12/2007 04:41 PM EST
Why worry? Nobody goes to confession anymore. It wasn't even recognized as a sacrament in the first thousand years of church history.
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Published by: Patricia Gonzalez
Canada 01/31/2007 11:41 AM EST
Deborah Graves, you are so on the money! We must indeed be doing something right to attract such hatred from these "journalists"... May God have mercy on them, and may He strengthen us to resist their attacks.
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Published by: Stephen
San José, Costa Rica 01/31/2007 11:37 AM EST
Please, don't you see the hypocresy in all of this? The Vatican should be scandalized by the sin among her confession ministers, not on those who expose the corruption. Can you really feel persecuted because the corruption is being exposed, that is not persecution, but a work in favor of charity.
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Published by: George Angel
Canada 01/30/2007 04:31 PM EST
Deborah from Salt Lake City, Utah is absolutely right! If the world peresecuted and crucified Jesus Christ, God Incarnate, King of Kings, the Catholic Church that is the Body of Christ on earth founded by Jesus Christ through the Apostle Peter would also be a persecuted Church. The world will always try to persecute the truth even though the truth is what will set it free from the snares and traps of the enemy. The things of this earth are but a passing phase that will be but a speck of dust in eternity. That a so called journalist would desecrate the Sacrament of Confession that is one of the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church instituted by Jesus Christ and then write about it and have the story published in a major Italian newspaper says much more about the lack of ethics and lack of integrity of the journalist and the mainstream media and how far they are all willing to stoop to try to make the Catholic Church look negative in the eyes of the world. If in fact this journalist is Catholic he should go to Confession as soon as possible. Jesus said quite clearly in scripture: "not even the gates of hell will prevail against the church." Pray, Pray, Pray!
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Published by: John
Iowa 01/30/2007 02:01 PM EST
The reality is, Catholics already know which priests in their community are teaching orthodoxy and which are not ... the bishop does to. The irony of this embarrassing ruse is that it ought to encourage those teaching outside of orthodoxy to teach orthodoxy. It is a sad statement about the integrity of these individual reporters ... if they will lie in the confessional, regardless of their religious beliefs, if they are so irreverant to disregard the trust of another person, why would anyone believe anything they write?
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Published by: Deborah Graves
Salt Lake City Utah USA 01/30/2007 09:35 AM EST
Perhaps we as Catholics should be honored at the obvious hatred and disrespect we are receiving. After all, people treated Jesus that way. And He said "If they hate me, they will hate you". We must be doing something right.
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