Catholic priests would have to report child sex abuse under proposed California law

[trotsky]

10. To be fair, I believe his logic is this:

* Catholic person rapes a child
* Catholic person wants to be a "good Catholic" and so goes and confesses the sin, seeking absolution. They KNOW the priest can't alert the authorities, but at least they can get that pesky sin off their conscience.
* Catholic person is free to rape again with zero consequences. (If they do, just repeat from the beginning.)

What gil is saying is that if priests can report (and Catholic child rapists know this), then it is likely that fewer Catholic child rapists will confess their sin in the first place.

So in the original situation, child rape occurs and NOTHING happens. Ever.

If priests are required to report what they are told in confessional, SOME rapists might be stopped. SOME children might be spared. But even if those numbers end up both being zero, we're certainly not any worse off than when we started. AND the Catholic child rapist will died unabsolved and burn in Catholic hell, meaning they must not have cared about the confessional crap to begin with.

As I said, I really don't understand the logic. Which means you're right - this is cover for the culture of rape, and it's also about religious privilege.