On May 31, the California state senate passed a bill requiring priests to report anything they heard in the sacrament of confession from priests or colleagues relating to sex abuse. The bill passed with a 30-4 vote, with 4 senators not voting at all. Catholic clergy and survivor groups have clashed on the bill, the clergy against it, survivor groups all for "increased transparency."
James Carroll’s article gives no hint that we are all, in fact, sinners in need of salvation; he argues that the only thing lay Catholics need to be saved from is Catholicism itself.