We might have to agree to disagree. Happily we agree that the kids are the most important thing here. I think if we had a solid counseling setup for people this would be an obvious thing, and you are correct that it should be a mandatory reporting. Until we do, I’m seeing this more as a free version of mental Healthcare which I don’t think should be impeded.

Yes, we need better.

You’re missing the point. I’m not defending them. Their actions are abhorrent andtheir victims deserve justice. I’m suggesting if we act aggressively towards these self reporters, you will actually INCREASE the number of molested children by disuading future self reporting from others.

I’m trying to decrease the number of victims. I don’t know how to give the victims justice, but decreasing future victims is paramount.

Yeah it’s not a great thing. It’s kind of like letting a local drug dealer off Scott free because he helped take down a drug ring. It’s protecting a larger number of children at the expense of not punishing the guy who self reported and tried to get help. Doesn’t feel great but should protect more children overall.

Let’s rephrase. Think of talking to a priest in this case a really poor level of free mental Healthcare. You think the best response is to take that away? I’m all for that if it’s replaced with something better. If we aren’t doing that though, then sure, you’d catch a few molesters when it is first announced. Then the other molesters stop talking to their last resort free counseling. And they continue to mess with children.

The entire issue could be solved with better mental Healthcare in the first place. I like the comments that suggested priests be required to refer these people to a program designed for them. Not straight to jail, but straight to better help so they’d top touching kids, and others will still come through and benefit as well.

Yes I hadn’t considered the reporting could be protected and not lead directly to jail. You are correct this should be the way. We just need to have a program set up to accept them.

That’s a good point. I would be in favor of this if it was a gateway to better therapy and not as a way to punish them. Self reporting should not be punished. Definitely agree that priests should not be the ones doing all the counseling. Just making the point that they currently don’t have any options and this might be currently helping.

These aggressive methods are not working. We need to provide better mental Healthcare for all people. These aggressive methods will lead to more child victims, not less. It’s unacceptable that people are putting their own disgust over the wellbeing of children.

Okay. I definitely get where everyone is coming from here. We all want to protect kids. I’m not sure this ruling is in the wrong though.

Here’s why. We demonize pedophilia to the point that people would kill someone that is attracted to children. I’m making a specific point here to NOT include child molesters. That’s a separate but very related issue. If we took the time to address the mental health issues that caused them to be attracted to children in the first place (eg, molested as children themselves, some other issue that therapy could address, etc), maybe we could stop them from going so far with their problem and actually save kids before they were abused.

Since they really don’t have anyone to talk to ever, maybe a priest could curb their behavior and act as a counselor to stop further abuse of children. If left unaddressed, maybe the molester would continue with many more victims, and the priest could stop them at 1. But if they no longer felt they could talk to a priest, then they continue.

Basically, as a country we should be doing MUCH better to stop pedophiles from dealing with their issues alone and help prevent them from actually molesting children. Failing that (since we are failing that), why are we trying to take away the next level of therapy for them? It makes no sense to continue to push them into a lonely corner and expect them to do differently. If the priests’ silence allows them to keep the molester from touching more kids, that’s a much better outcome overall.