text: The "seal of Confession" is/was supposed to be a protection for the penitent, not a wall of silence to shelter criminal predator priests with impunity.  Priests who weaponize the confessional as an opportunity to rape and sodomize children and vulnerable adults should not be able to use "the seal" to dodge and conceal their criminal assaults - ever.
  
  Part of any reform and renewal of the priesthood Catholics should restrict the faculties for confessors to those men and women who have received special training in psychology and certification of their probity. 
  
  Priests have been abusing the confessional since the early centuries of the church.  The sacrament of Reconciliation is suppose to be a source of mercy and peace - not an occasion of rape for sexual perverts:  Time for reform!