Australian States Agree on Mandatory Reporting Laws for Child Abuse Revealed During Confession

Australian States Agree on Mandatory Reporting Laws for Child Abuse Revealed During Confession
St. Patrick's Cathedral, the seat of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York in New York City, on Sept. 8, 2015. Spencer Platt/Getty Images
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Australia’s chief legal officers have agreed to standardise laws making it mandatory for priests to report child abuse revealed to them during confession.

Federal and state attorneys-general meeting in Adelaide on Friday agreed to three principles for the laws, which were recommended following the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.