Age bin

Bryan Keon-Cohen objects to priests invoking the secrecy of the confessional.  Well, good, because if he objects to professional secrecy he can do something about it. As a barrister, he can renounce legal professional privilege, under which any of his clients who happen to be paedophiles or a murderers or tax evaders can tell him they did it without him having to report the confession to the authorities. Should Australian secular society in the 21st century, that accepts the rule of law, allow such practices to remain outside national legislative standards and professional requirements?  It’s true that under such circumstances confessions would more or less cease, the clients would lie, and the advice that Mr. Keon-Cohen would give would in consequence be pretty useless, but given his expressed principles anything less would be sheer hypocrisy.