House Bill 74 would do away with the privilege in a sacramental confession by requiring priests to report information relating to child abuse and neglect that is shared in a confessional.

Theodore McCarrick, whose attorneys have argued he should not stand trial due to “progressive and irreparable cognitive deficits,” recalled the name of the man he allegedly sexually abused as a child, although he denied the sexual assaults.

According to a TV report from a Polish channel, John Paul II knew about priests who sexually abused children in his archdiocese of Krakow in the 1970s.

“The Society of Jesus is a mixed reality as the whole church is,” Father Zollner said, when asked about the lack of transparency in the Father Rupnik case. “We are not better at this. And it has been proven now, in the eyes of everybody, again.”

Jesuit Father Hans Zollner will be a consultant for the Diocese of Rome’s office dedicated to safeguarding minors and vulnerable people.

McCarrick, once one of the most powerful clerics in the Catholic Church known for his fundraising prowess, has been accused of sexually abusing both adult and child victims over decades.