Confessional

Bob, the history of confession is not as it you describe it based on that book. It began as a very public and difficult procedure. You had to confess your sins publicly to the whole Church and receive a very strenuous public penance that sometimes would take months or years to complete. Private confession with a priest developed from Ireland and the monks there and was a welcome change for all involved. This is what began the confessional boxes. And yes it provided not only anonymity to the penitent but also protection for both the priest and the penitent for any abuses.

Quote: Dalex64

What purpose are you serving by keeping criminal knowledge secret? It is to preserve the confidence of someone to confess to their crimes and seek forgiveness, to save their "soul", with no fear of criminal prosecution.

Yes.

There are other places where people can be free to confess their sins and tell the truth without reprisal. I think of doctors, attorneys, and psychologists. What all of these have in common is that the primary concern is the health and well-being of the individual.

Quote: FrGamble

but also protection for both the priest and the penitent for any abuses.

For the priest? It was started because
the priests were out of control in abusing
the women in the congregation. It's
the oldest story, men using their
power to get sexual favors from females.
And a priest in those days was next to god
in holiness, he could abuse his power
without any fear of retribution. It was
kid in a candy store time.

The box was used to literally put a
wall between the woman and the
priests roaming hands. Imagine
how rampant the abuse was if that
kind of drastic step had to be taken.

Your problem is, you think all priests
of the past were just like you and
your friends. Intelligent and educated.
They weren't. Many of them were
uneducated dullards forced into
the priesthood by pushy families.
Having a priest in your immediate
family was a feather in your cap,
it made you 'somebody' in the
social ranking.

So you have a ton of these reprobates
running amok for centuries, abusing
their power. It had to be curtailed, so
the penalty box was invented.

Quote: Dalex64

In other countries, though, it is a crime not to disclose knowledge of a crime, or plans to commit a crime, to the authorities.

Sounds like living in Nazi Germany where kids were encouraged to rat on their parents. Glad I do not live in such a place.

Quote: Evenbob

So you have a ton of these reprobates
running amok for centuries, abusing
their power. It had to be curtailed, so
the penalty box was invented.

Imagine how bad it had to be
with priests abusing women.
Women had no rights, they
were 2nd class citizens. Yet
enough of them complained
that it eventually got back to
the Vatican and they had to act.
The abuse by priests must have
been out of control on a scale
we can't even imagine.

I don't know Bob you are pretty good at imagining things.

Quote: FrGamble

I don't know Bob you are pretty good at imagining things.

I'm not imagining this. The average age
for a priest in the US is 63. That means
there are the same number above 63
as below it. This is very bad news for
the Church. As priests retire and die off,
they aren't being replaced by enough
new priests.

The number of priests in the world is
the same as it was 50 years ago. But
the number of Catholics in the world
has doubled. Unless some radical
changes are made in the next 10 years,
there will a crisis that's out of control.
Allowing women in the priesthood
is the only answer. They Church must
drag itself out of the 15th century.

Quote: Evenbob

The average age
for a priest in the US is 63. That means
there are the same number above 63
as below it.

That is not correct. What you are describing, with the same number of samples above and below a number, is a "median", not an "average" or "mean"

for example, for the series
{1, 1, 1, 1, 2, 100, 100, 100, 100}
the median is 2
the average is just over 45.

So, the average age of the US priest is 63, but that does not tell you that half are older and half are younger.

Quote: Dalex64

So, the average age of the US priest is 63, but that does not tell you that half are older and half are younger.

"In 1970, fewer than 10 percent of priests were over the age of 65. Median age of the priests in the new study is 64."

So there are just as many above 64
as below it.

Quote: Evenbob

"In 1970, fewer than 10 percent of priests were over the age of 65. Median age of the priests in the new study is 64."

So there are just as many above 64
as below it.

Ok fine, I just wanted to point out that average and median are not the same thing, and that average does not mean half above and half below.