But transfolk are the problem, right? ๐
Originally Posted By u/Ok_Presentation_940 At 2025-06-03 06:47:38 PM | Source
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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I'm of two minds about this. On the one hand, I feel like, if somebody admits to molesting a child to a priest, then the priest should report that to the correct legal people to deal with that.
But on the other hand, as a person who has religious practices ingrained into my behavior, I can understand, it's like I don't imagine that the people that are evil pedophiles are the kind of people to go and brag about it with their pastor.
What the ideal scenario in this case would be is that the pedophile confesses to the priest and then turns themselves in.
The next best scenario would be that the pedophile confesses to the priest, and then at least does not ever commit pedophilia again.
I'm not expecting clemency for pedophiles. Don't get me wrong.
But making it so that pedophiles can't even confess their sins without immediately being hauled off to The nearest jail cell is not going to actually decrease the amount of pedophilia in the world. Instead, it's going to convince pedophiles with religious leanings to accept that their souls are condemned to hell and some of them are gonna choose to go out with a bang.
There's another possible scenario of a child making the confession because they're feeling guilty about the sexual act despite being a victim.
That is a good point.
I can't imagine that the current confessional protections apply in that scenario.
Any priest who would hear a confession from a child who was sexually assaulted and then hides it should probably go to jail themselves.
what if the child doesn't want the abuser to be punished, should the victim not have that right regardless of their mental wellbeing?
Nope. Child sexual abuse doesn't work that way.
Most child sexual abuse is done in a way that is pleasurable for the child, by people the child loves and cares about.
They by default will almost certainly not want their abuser to be punished, but this is the one thing that shouldnt be allowed.
Why?
Because most people who sexually abuse a child do not stop at one child. It's not just about punishing the pedo for the act, it's also about stopping them from pedoing again.
That's why we have sex offender registries.