The Catholic Church in Australia has rejected laws forcing priests to report child abuse when they learn about it in the confessional, setting the stage for a showdown with the government.

The Australian Catholic Bishops Conference (ACBC), the country's top Catholic body, said it did not accept a recommendation from an official inquiry into church abuse, which would force priests by law to report abuse to the police when they hear about it in confession.

One state and a territory in Australia have since introduced laws making it a crime for priests to fail to report abuse heard in the confessional, while the other five states and remaining territory have said they are considering their response.

"The Council ... continues to support retention of the civil law protection for the seal of the confessional," the ACBC said in a report published today.

Francis was asked by a journalist what he would say to parents who observe homosexual traits in their children.

"I would say first of all pray, not to condemn, to dialogue, to understand, to give space to the son or the daughter," he responded, before adding that parents must also consider the age of the child.

"When it [homosexuality] shows itself from childhood, there is a lot that can be done through psychiatry, to see how things are. It is something else if it shows itself after 20 years," he said.

The Pope added that ignoring a child who showed homosexual tendencies was an "error of fatherhood or motherhood".

An organisation representing LGBT Catholics around the world has been denied permission for a stall at the World Meeting of Families in Dublin, which Pope Francis is attending on 25 August.

Ruby Almeida, a co-chair of the GNRC, said she was saddened and frustrated by the decision. “I think it’s the usual thing that goes on – the church publicly says it’s welcoming [to LGBT people and organisations] but pressure is brought to bear on the organisers. We wanted to be able to go and say this is who we are, let’s have a conversation.”

Another organisation, We Are Church, which campaigns for equality and inclusivity within the Catholic church, has also been denied permission for a stall in the exhibition hall.

Diarmuid Martin, the archbishop of Dublin, has said the WMF welcomes everyone, despite the replacement of five pictures of same-sex couples with traditional families in WMF leaflets in January.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said his first words to Pope Francis would be ones of welcome, but there are a number of issues ranging from human rights to child sex abuse that he also wants to talk about.

Mr Varadkar also said that any information requested by State authorities carrying out investigations into child abuse should be made available whether it is held in Ireland or in the Vatican.

"We want to make sure that there is truth and justice and healing for victims and that has to be part of it," he said.

Mr Varadkar said he would try to raise as many issues as possible during his brief meeting with Pope Francis at Dublin Castle on Saturday.

But, he said, the church also needed to acknowledge the dark aspects of its history that have come to light especially in recent decades.

He pointed to a clericalism that ended up confusing power and ministry; the sexual abuse of minors by clergy and religious that did untold life-long damage to victims; the violent and repressive treatment by church representatives of young people sent to the State’s reformatory institutions; and the dark experience of vulnerable women in places meant to be residences of refuge.

He added that the cover-up, wilful or otherwise, and mismanagement that had been highlighted, had compounded the damage, adding to the church's shame.

"We know that not every bishop or priest or sister or brother or lay person engaged in church circles was bad. And we know that not everyone was good." he said.

South Carolina churches are shedding thousands of members a year, even as the state’s population grows by tens of thousands.

In the place we call the Bible Belt, where generations have hung their hats on their church-going nature and faithful traditions, an increasing trend of shrinking church attendance — and increasing church closings — signal a fundamental culture shift in South Carolina.

At least 97 Protestant churches across South Carolina have closed since 2011, according to data from the Lutheran, Presbyterian, United Methodist and Southern Baptist denominations. An untold number of other closings, certainly, are not captured by these statistics.

Many churches are dying slow deaths, stuck in stagnation if not decline. And if they don’t do something, in the near future, they’ll share the fate of Cedar Creek United Methodist, a 274-year-old Richland County congregation that dissolved last year; Resurrection Lutheran, a church near downtown Columbia that will hold its last service on Sept. 2; and the dozens of churches that sit shuttered and empty around the state.