In
January, as the allegations of sexual abuse in the Catholic Church piled
up, the state Senate passed a bill – drafted with input from Catholic
leaders – aimed at requiring clergy to report suspicions of abuse.
Protestant leaders, who had not been consulted, immediately protested
that in its efforts to protect the Roman Catholic confessional, legislators
would be tying the hands of clergy members by barring them from reporting
“confidential” information obtained from anyone “seeking religious or
spiritual advice or comfort.”
Conference
Minister and President Nancy S. Taylor sent a letter to every legislator
about the issue, saying: “while uphold confidentiality as a general
principle, it should not be used to protect criminals, or criminal behavior,
at the expense of innocent victims.”
Then,
under the auspices of the Massachusetts Council of Churches, Taylor
and United Church of Christ Special Counsel Donald Clark met with leaders
from the Catholic Church, the Unitarian Universalist Association, the
American Baptist Churches and the First Church of Christ, Scientist,
to hammer out new language.
Their work resulted in the House adopting a very different version of
the bill, replacing the language that would prevent clergy from reporting
suspicions with language stating that clergy could not be forced to
disclose information “if disclosure is enjoined by the rules or practice
of the church or religious body.”
As
of press time, House and Senate leaders were in negotiation, attempting
to work out their differences on the bill.
Taylor said that, whatever the outcome, she is pleased that Protestant
leaders were heard on the issue.
“We certainly were successful in preventing a bad piece of legislation
from being rushed through,” she said, referring to the original Senate
bill. “And we were successful in getting a diversity of voices from
the faith community heard.”
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