Professor Emeritus Garrett Barden, who has died aged 84, had a long and distinguished career at University College Cork and was the author of well-regarded books.
Irish Law Criminalizes Outdoor Confession to a Priest
23 Apr 2021
A new Irish statutory instrument aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus makes meeting with a priest outdoors for the sacrament of confession a crime, according to a law professor at Trinity College Dublin.
If a priest “were to meet a parishioner for outdoor confession, they would both be committing a criminal offence,” Professor Oran Doyle wrote this week on a site publishing academic commentary about Ireland’s legal response to the coronavirus, “whereas, if two people were to meet for a chat or to exercise, they would not be committing a criminal offence.”