Italian bishop angered by newspaper reports on mock 'confessions'
March 13, 2015
Italian bishops have expressed outrage at a newspaper reporter who posed as a penitent and wrote about what priests told her in the confessional.
Laura Alari wrote four pieces of Il Resto Del Carlino, in which she reported that she had told priests that she was divorced and remarried, and asked their advice about receiving Communion. She said that several priests suggested that she follow her own conscience—perhaps going to Mass in another parish to “avoid scandal.”
Cardinal Carlo Caffara of Bologna lodged the “strongest protest” against the abuse of the confessional. Bishop Nunzio Galatino, the secretary-general of the Italian bishops’ conference, described the journalistic tactic as “perverse from the point of view of professional ethics, and unspeakable from a human point of view.”
The paper’s editor defended his reporter, saying that the stories were intended to show “the extent to which grassroot priests' sensitivities coincide with Pope Francis'."
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