Never settle any case out of court for a variety of reasons, not least that while a pastoral plea demands a pastoral response, a legal challenge demands a legal response. Moreover, when a financial settlement is made, that more than suggests guilt, thus damaging irreparably an innocent priest’s reputation. Regrettably, most bishops listened, instead, to diocesan attorneys and insurance companies.

The legislature of the Australian state of Queensland on Tuesday passed a law requiring priests to violate the seal of confession to report known or suspected child sex abuse. Failure to do so will be punished with three years in prison.

A priest has filed a defamation suit against a chancery Monsignor, charging that the Monsignor knowingly filed a false sex-abuse claim. The suspended priest has already won a defamation suit against a police officer who made the same charge.

It is not surprising that this test case involves the due process rights of priests. They have been under attack for years. Unfairly maligned in the courts, and the court of public opinion (often manipulated by a hostile media), priests everywhere are being subjected to criticism that exceeds the bounds of rationality.

“This is a wake-up call for the county and Archdiocese,” the defamed priest's attorney said. “You had an independent, neutral body reviewing all of the evidence.”