English Oral

[caffinatedloz]

Hey AN,
Would really love some feedback on my English oral about the seal of confessional.

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During Malcolm Turnbull’s time as Prime Minister, he said, “The safety of children should always be put first.” I believe that this value should be at the core of all we do, particularly when it comes to lawmaking. There is not one person in this room who would say that they condone the covering up of child sexual abuse by the church. Priests must be legally compelled to break the seal of the confessional in cases when child abuse is suspected. Good afternoon Mr O’Sullivan and Year 10 students. For the next few minutes, we will explore why it is imperative that the mandatory reporting of child abuse extends to every aspect of church life. As students at a Catholic school, we must put pressure on the church to value the wellbeing of the people above primitive canon law.

I would like to begin by discussing how the two core aspects of Christianity are to love God and to love others. In the New Testament, the bible says, “And now these three remain: faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love.” As Christians, not reporting the fact that a young person in our community is being abused goes against the entire spirit of the bible. The “seal” of confessional is not a biblically mandated idea. It was a rule added more than 1000 years after the bible was finished to a set of religious rules called “canon law”. The idea of these rules is to provide guidance in living in a biblical way, however it is clear that in this case they are not performing their function. We need to remember that the purpose behind these human rules is to aid Christians in living a life that honours God. When they are no longer doing this we need to get rid of them, or allow for exceptions to be made, so that they are guiding us to act in a way that loves others and glorifies God. How is it logical to insist that we follow these archaic rules? These broken rules? As MP Fiona Pattern said, “I think Jesus would mandatory report.” The idea of the “seal of confessional” is not compatible with nature of Christianity.

Next I will consider how although some people believe that the introduction of a law like this violates religious freedoms, I think it is clear that the church should not be above the law. Certain freedoms are afforded to every human by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, including freedom of religion, however, I do not believe that there is any conclusive proof that this law would violate religion in any way. The confessional is not a ceremony that is ever talked about in the bible. It is a ritual that was tacked on to Christianity to aid adherents in following their religion. It is not an essential part of the religion, and it would be immoral for our legal system to allow people to hide child abuse under the pretence of religious freedom. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights also states that “Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.” Allowing sexual abuse to continue is ensuring that every person’s right to safety is not being being upheld.

Finally, and most importantly, no matter what religious background we come from, we can all agree that the safety of children must be put first in every circumstance, and that the responsibility to ensure this must extend to every person in the community. There is a significant risk that child abusers will continue to offend, even after confessing. When we know that an offence has taken place, it should be the duty of every person to prevent it from ever happening again. Further than this, many in society, especially victims of abuse, believe that people must serve a jail sentence to be punished for their crimes. The scars of abuse never leave a victim. In the back of their mind, they will always remember what happened to them. This is why it is essential that we prevent such atrocities from happening and continuing to happen. Why should abusers not be punished for the life sentence they have given their victims? I am a carer both in a professional setting and in a volunteer capacity through my church, and working with children has made me even more passionate about this. In my workplace, any suspicions of abuse must be reported within 30 days. With “child-safe” policies being introduced in church, as a volunteer I also have that same responsibility. Why is it that clergymen are not also held to that same standard, or even allowed to report abuse if it is disclosed within the confessional? Churches are places in which children should feel safe and valued. Their safety should be valued. At present, it is clear it is not, and each and every one of us must compel our society to make significant changes. We must encourage our school as a Catholic community to embrace new regulations and see all the good that they can create.

Author Jeanne McElvaney says,“You can recognise survivors of abuse by their courage.” We must demonstrate some of this same courage in compelling our church to do the right thing. One of the key values of Christianity is to love, which must be demonstrated in the way that Christians conduct themselves. Therefore, introducing such a law would not inhibit religion but actually compel priests to live in the way they are called to as Christians. Catholic priests must place the safety of children at the heart of all they do by breaking the seal of confessional when child abuse is known or suspected.

[caffinatedloz]

Bump- I'd really love some help!

[angrybiscuit]

Hi laura! Sorry if this is too late…
Disclaimer: I’m not at all amazing at english and each teacher will have a personal preference so please don’t feel that you should follow my advice.

An oral is a speech so don’t feel obliged that you have to treat it like an essay! You certainly don’t have to feel restricted into having 1 intro para, 3 body paras and a conclusion. You should break them up (for example in my oral my intro was split into multiple mini sentences for better flow). This will make it less like you’re reading an essay and more of a speech to try and to connect more to your audience.

Try start something eye opening; a shocking anecdote, statistic, emotive language… anything that will immediately grab your reader. There’s nothing worse than a bored audience right off the bat (speaking from experience haha)

You have used it a bit but you should use more emotive language. Make your audience feel angry, appeal for their sense of social justice, make them empathise with the children potentially abused. This is an especially sensitive topic so emotive and provoking language is certainly the way to go.

I laud you to think about your audience. Always ask yourself, what will make them agree with my point of view. I’ve found that people my age are not interested with jargon and logical essay-like arguments, they’ll fall asleep, so I tend to simplify it and use very thought-provoking language.

I don’t mean this to be in attacking way but at some points, you come off as arguing as you would argue in an essay. Not necessarily a bad thing but remember who you’re reading this to! Remember who you’re appealing to!

That being said, I quite like your conclusion. It sums up your argument nicely with a ribbon.

Again, I am not an expert in this area that you are writing your oral on nor am I an expert in English! But I hope I’ve given you a few new tips.
Hopefully, someone with more knowledge on the seal of confessional and on English will help you out!

Hope this helps!

[caffinatedloz]

Thanks so much angrybiscuit! I really appreciate your help!!