It’s a debate that’s lingered amongst state lawmakers for about 20 years. Within the final two legislative periods, two payments that might have made clergy members obligatory reporters of kid abuse and neglect have failed.
Now, Sen. Noel Body, D-Seattle, who sponsored the earlier payments, is attempting once more with Senate Bill 5375. The invoice would add Washington to the checklist of 45 different states, together with much less progressive states similar to Arkansas, Alabama and Mississippi, that give clergy the identical obligation that lecturers, therapists and medical professionals must report data or suspicion of kid abuse. Mainly, when you hear one thing, say one thing.
Body’s earlier payments had bipartisan assist from lawmakers and The Times editorial board. This 12 months’s invoice deserves the identical.
Body proposed a bill in 2023 that might have required clergy to report any data or suspicion of kid abuse and neglect. That invoice failed. She got here again in 2024 with a compromise bill that included an exemption for data of abuse obtained throughout confession, a serious tenet within the Catholic religion. Nevertheless, the invoice carved out an exception to that exemption. Clergy would “have an obligation to warn” legislation enforcement or social companies if there’s affordable perception {that a} little one is in imminent hazard of abuse or neglect, even when that perception is knowledgeable by data gained “partly on account of a penitential communication” — however corroborated with data obtained exterior of confession.
Now Body, a toddler sexual abuse survivor herself, is attempting to guard kids from the ordeal she skilled many years in the past with a invoice that provides no clergy-penitent privilege.
“I’ve tried actually onerous over the past couple of years to discover a stability and simply strike a cautious compromise … for many who I attempted to work with, I’m actually sorry that I don’t really feel like I could make a compromise for you anymore, and I stand by the invoice with no exemption,” Body advised the Senate Human Companies Committee final week.
In lots of cases, spiritual leaders develop private relationships with their flock. Some supply counseling or hear confessions that might reveal felony violations that contain kids. A person might confess to sexually abusing his niece. A baby struggling years of abuse at house might flip to probably the most trusted individual they know for assist — the individual they deem closest to God.
Washington voters have put their belief in lawmakers to guard kids as nicely. This 12 months’s session presents the third likelihood for them to guard those that can’t defend themselves. They need to not let this second cross with out making what’s morally proper, legally proper.
