Here is something we can do to protect children

[rambot]

Here is an ACTIONABLE piece of legislation that would ACTIVELY protect children and victims of abuse. This is something that would make America safer from potential victims.

I often here Republicans talk about wanting to protect children from drag queens reading a book.

Well here's something that would literally, and actually protect children.

GOP legislator blocks bill requiring clergy to report child sex abuse
but a Republican is blocking it.

And so everyone's response will be.....

 

[Fantine]

The double standard and selective attention are alive and well in Congress.

 

[Vambram]

After reading this article, I can understand why Arizona state Rep. Quang Nguyen, who is Catholic, and represents his district there in the state House of Representatives in Arizona, does not want that bill to pass. He is attempting to protect his belief that Catholic priests should not be required to report acts of sexual abuse that confessors say to their priests.
However, I strongly and wholeheartedly without any doubt at all in my mind and heart completely and totally disagree with that point of view. I do not care if we are talking about confessions made to a Catholic priest, or confessions made to a minister of any other denomination; any and all .... credible ... confessions of sexual abuse ought to be reported to the proper legal authorities.

 

[keith99]

Wanting to destroy the confidentiality of the confessional, psychiatric patient doctor relationships and other similar situations is very shortsighted. While it will help some people in the short term, the long term is that any chance of dealing with things (including getting the criminal to confess) will be lost.

But shortsighted thinking is all the rage these days.

 

[ThatRobGuy]

Wanting to destroy the confidentiality of the confessional, psychiatric patient doctor relationships

I don't put these two things into the same category. One is a healthcare provider, the other is following an archaic tradition that was, in part, implemented as a religious rule for reasons that weren't on the "up & up". Even Catholic publications acknowledge as much...


...even so, even if we pretend that priest confidentiality is just as important as doctor-patient confidentiality, mental health professionals still report suspected abuse.

Most states have statutes requiring healthcare providers, including mental health professionals, to report any suspected abuse of children, elders, and dependent adults. So, in most cases, therapists who hear admissions of such abuse from patients not only can report their patients' statements—they must.

I don't think there's any reason (healthcare, religious, or otherwise) that justifies a person keeping secrets like that.....

If someone tells you about how they abuse their kid, and you keep that to yourself and don't save that child, you're a terrible person, full stop.

 

[rambot]

Wanting to destroy the confidentiality of the confessional, psychiatric patient doctor relationships and other similar situations is very shortsighted. While it will help some people in the short term, the long term is that any chance of dealing with things (including getting the criminal to confess) will be lost.

But shortsighted thinking is all the rage these days.

I appreciate that you point it out as short sighted thinking. Given the professional duty of all of the health care providers you mentioned TO REPORT to police instances of abuse and imminent threats of danger, I'm not sure your point is...well, appropriate.

 

[Brihaha]

Wanting to destroy the confidentiality of the confessional, psychiatric patient doctor relationships and other similar situations is very shortsighted. While it will help some people in the short term, the long term is that any chance of dealing with things (including getting the criminal to confess) will be lost.

But shortsighted thinking is all the rage these days.

But if the criminal confesses to the priest, it only serves to ease the criminal's conscience. It leaves victims to fend for themselves. Especially when the priest keeps the crimes to himself. Nobody is destroying the confessional. There's still a demand for them.

Like our first amendment, the confessional confidentiality should come to a halt in the moment crimes are confessed. Who cares if the crooks won't confess for fear of getting caught? The confession does no good if priests stay quiet anyhow. Why should criminals have all the rights while victims suffer alone?

The news is full of stories about folks who were convicted of crimes without ever going to a confessional. Any chance of dealing with things will not be lost if a priest reports a crime. That actually seems shortsighted my friend. I heard it is all the rage haha.

 

[keith99]

Do any of you honestly think that something being covered by the confessional plays no part in the criminal being willing to talk about it?

Priests cannot report crimes they are never told about. They also cannot try to convince the criminal to come clean if they never hear about it.

 

[Paidiske]

On the one hand, (and here I speak as a priest who hears confessions, and as a mandatory reporter without a legal exemption for confession), I do not believe that requiring mandatory reporting even of what is heard in confession is going to keep kids safer. I believe that perpetrators will simply not confess if they know it will be (or may be) reported. And that is borne out in what I have heard from people who work with offenders around rehabilitation.

On the other hand, I think there is something deeply important about the church saying, "There is no place, no shadow, no loophole, in which we will cover up abuse. We will not be party to it, we will not protect it, we will put the welfare and safety of children above anything else." If the church is unwilling to do that, I can understand the state saying, "Well, sorry, but if you won't do the right thing voluntarily, we will require it of you."

I do believe it is possible, with mutual understanding, good will and cooperation, for church and state to work on this together in a way which does not require a technical violation of the seal of confession, for those traditions where that is seen as absolute. But if the relationship is antagonistic (as it often is), and people see this as an attack on the church rather than a desire to work well together to achieve a necessary end, then the willingness to build that mutual understanding, good will etc. isn't there. That is to our collective shame.