Churches Defend Clergy Exemption From Child Abuse Reporting Laws

The Catholic Newman Center in Salt Lake City was quiet on a frigid Sunday evening until the priest warned parishioners who had gathered after Mass that their right to private confession was at risk. A new law, he said, would break that sacred bond. He directed them to sign a one-page form letter on their way out. It began, “I/We Oppose HB90,” and called the bill “an improper interference of the government into the practice of religion in Utah.”

In the following days of February 2020, Utah’s Catholic diocese said it collected about 9,000 signed letters and sent them to state Rep. Angela Romero, a Democrat who had been working on the bill as part of her campaign against child sexual abuse. HB90 targeted Utah’s “clergy-penitent privilege,” a law similar to those in many states that exempts clergy of all denominations from the duty to report child abuse they learn about in a confessional setting. Utah’s Catholic leaders argued that the bill threatened the privacy of confession. According to the Associated Press, the measure also drew disapproval from some members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, whose followers make up the vast majority of the state Legislature. HB90 was dead on arrival.

The AP reported that in 33 states, clergy are exempt from laws requiring professionals such as teachers, physicians and psychotherapists to report information about alleged child sexual abuse to police or child welfare officials if the church considers the information privileged. The AP described this as a loophole that has resulted in an unknown number of alleged predators continuing to abuse children for years after confessing to religious officials. In many of these cases, the privilege was invoked to shield religious groups from civil and criminal liability after the abuse became known to civil authorities.

An AP review found that over the past two decades, state lawmakers have proposed more than 130 bills to create or amend child sex abuse reporting laws. All either targeted the loophole and failed to close it, or amended the mandatory reporting statute without touching the clergy privilege, amid strong opposition from religious groups. The AP found that the Roman Catholic Church has used its lobbying infrastructure and influence among lawmakers in some states to protect the privilege. It also found that influential members of the Latter-day Saints and Jehovah’s Witnesses have worked in statehouses and courts to preserve it in areas where their membership is high.

In Maryland, a campaign to defeat a proposal that would have closed the clergy-penitent loophole was led by a Catholic cardinal who was later defrocked for sexually abusing children and adult seminarians. In California, Missouri and New Mexico, public and behind-the-scenes opposition from the Catholic and Latter-day Saints churches derailed bills aimed at closing the loophole, the AP reported. David Finkelhor, director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire, said of several religious groups, “They believe they’re on a divine mission that justifies keeping the name and the reputation of their institution pristine. So the leadership has a strong disincentive to involve the authorities, police or child protection people.”

An AP investigation published last month found that a Latter-day Saints bishop in Arizona, acting at the direction of church leaders, failed to report a church member who had confessed to sexually abusing his 5-year-old daughter. According to documents revealed in a lawsuit, Merrill Nelson, described as a church lawyer and Utah Republican lawmaker, had advised the bishop not to report the abuse to civil authorities because of Arizona’s clergy privilege law. The AP reported that the failure to report allowed the church member, the late Paul Adams, to abuse his daughters and allegedly abuse one of his sons over many years. In response, Arizona state Sen. Victoria Steele, a Democrat from Tucson, proposed legislation three times to close the clergy reporting loophole. Steele told the AP that key Latter-day Saints lawmakers, including a former Republican state senator and judiciary committee chairmen, thwarted her efforts before the proposals reached the full Legislature. Steele said, “What this boils down to is that the church is being given permission to protect the predators and the children be damned.” Speaking up for those who cannot protect themselves is the work Steele’s proposals reflect (Proverbs 31:8-9).

The AP also reported that in 2019, two Arizona Republican legislators refused to vote for a budget until lawmakers passed a measure allowing past victims of child sexual abuse to sue churches or youth groups that turned a blind eye to abuse. Legislative business stalled for weeks amid strong opposition from the Latter-day Saints, the Roman Catholic Church and insurers, and their allies in the Legislature. The measure was eventually approved.

The Adams case is not the only example the AP cited of the privilege being invoked where a clergy member’s failure to report was followed by prolonged abuse. In Montana, a woman who was abused by a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the mid-2000s won a $35 million jury verdict against the church for failing to report her abuse. In 2020, the state Supreme Court reversed the judgment, ruling that church leaders were under no obligation to report, citing the state’s clergy-penitent privilege.

Source: Read the original report