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An Archbishop of the Milwaukee Catholic Church has revoked one of his priest's privileges to administer the sacrament of confession following the priest's advocacy for breaking the seal of confession in cases of child sexual abuse.
In a statement released on March 22, Archbishop Listecki wrote, "I have informed Father James Connell that, effective immediately, he is to cease all such erroneous communications that distort the teachings of the Catholic Church about the confessional seal."
He continued to call Connell's claims false and said that they created "unrest" among "the people of God" and doubt in the privacy of the confessional.
He also mentioned in the statement that he had removed Father Connell's authority to take confessions and perform absolutions.
This comes after the now-retired priest openly supported a Delaware bill mandating priests to share information about individuals confessing to child sexual abuse.
In his advocacy of the bill, Connell wrote: "No institution in our society, not even a recognized religion, has a significant advantage over governments’ compelling interest and responsibility to protect its children from harm by abuse or neglect," per Catholic News Agency.
On an earlier occasion, the priest wrote to Pope Francis, appealing to the pontiff to release from sealing any confessions of sexual abuse against "vulnerable adults" and "children."
The priest, who happens to be a canon lawyer, also filed a lawsuit against ten US states, calling the fact that priests were exempt from testifying in sexual abuse cases "unconstitutional." The case, it turns out, was thrown out the very next day.
Connell is a known activist against covering up priestly sexual abuse within the Catholic church, and as a testimony to the latter, boycotted Archbishop Rembert Weakland, who was said to have paid hush money to a seminary. Be that as it may, Conell was also implicated in a similar cover-up scandal in 2009.