WASHINGTON (DC)
Washington Post
January 23, 2019
By Fenit Nirappil and Michelle Boorstein
D.C. Attorney General Karl A. Racine (D) is proposing legislation to add clergy to the list of mandatory reporters who must tell authorities about suspected child abuse or neglect, the latest fallout from a growing clergy sexual-abuse scandal in the Catholic Church.
Racine’s bill also would require mandatory reporters to attend training on their responsibilities under the law and would increase penalties for failing to report abuse.
Clergy, teachers, health-care workers and others would face up to $2,500 in fines and 180 days in jail upon the first failure to report.
“Teachers, health professionals, and clergy have a special responsibility to protect children, but far too often abuse goes unreported or is covered up,” Racine said in a statement. “To help stop child abuse in the District, this bill requires more adults to report it and trains them on how to spot.”
Clergy are mandatory reporters in 28 states, according to the Children’s Bureau, an arm of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Racine’s office has been meeting with faith groups in the nation’s capital to discuss his proposal. His aides originally considered mandatory reporting of sexual abuse even if accusations were revealed in confession — a sacrament in Catholic doctrine for parishioners to seek forgiveness for their sins.
But the bill has an exception in such circumstances, saying ministers are not required to report abuse if “the basis for their knowledge or belief is the result of a confession or penitential communication made by a penitent directly to the minister.”
Texas, West Virginia and a few other states do not exclude the confessional in mandatory-reporting laws.
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