Here we are talking about keeping secret crimes that are quite likely to be repeated - keeping them secret is in fact colluding to allow them to continue
I've always regarded Confession as the supreme hypocrisy - a 'get into Heaven free, whatever you've done' - a piece of mystical nonsense which is little different from the purchased absolutions that were a lucrative living for clergymen (and often those masquerading as them)
Along with the sale of fake 'reliques' they were part of the 'God industry'
That's always been the problem for me - Churches that operate independently of their claimed religion and make up 'sins and laws' that bear no relationship to any documented scriptures
All part of the 'power' that is now disappearing
Only when they do, perhaps then we can sit down and discuss religion rationally with all the ballyhoo stripped away.
Jim Carroll