Priests and other clergy members should have to report cases of suspected child sexual abuse

Clergy members are more likely to know about abuse than teachers or doctors. Yet just under half of the states do not mandate that clergy members report suspected abuse to the authorities or child protective services. When religious organizations keep these facts circulating internally while failing to disclose them to the public, the children suffer.

For religious organizations, there are other factors that reduce the likelihood that law enforcement and protective services will learn of suspected abuse. Even those states that treat clergy members as mandated reporters still may not require reporting in circumstances where the information was gleaned through a “clergy-penitent” communication. All states recognize a confessional privilege that can immunize clergy members from reporting if they learn the facts of reportable crimes through one-on-one communication with a parishioner. This privilege is not limited to the Catholic faith. A few states have explicitly or implicitly denied the privilege — New Hampshire, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas and West Virginia — if the issue is child abuse or neglect. But elsewhere confessional privilege can operate as a high bar to child protection.