“And the help line is just one of many safeguards put in place by the church.
When a leader calls the help line, the conversation is about how to stop the abuse, care for the victim and ensure compliance with reporting obligations, even in cases when the law provides clergy-penitent privilege or restricts what can be shared from private ecclesiastical conversations. It provides a place for local leaders, who serve voluntarily, to receive direction from experts to determine who should make a report and whether they (local leaders) should play a role in that reporting. “The nature and the purpose of the church’s help line was seriously mischaracterized in the recent Associated Press article. The help line is instrumental in ensuring that all legal requirements for reporting are met. Laws in other states, such as New York, do not allow clergy to breech priest-penitent privilege unless the privilege is waived by the penitent. Some states like Oregon require clergy to report abuse.
That lawsuit case illustrated the fact that reporting requirements are different across the United States. The plaintiff voluntarily withdrew the lawsuit, which was dismissed with prejudice. For example, the church was sued recently in Oregon by a woman whose husband confessed that he was sexually abusing his children and went to prison after a church leader reported the abuse. Latter-day Saint clergy regularly report abuse to law enforcement based on advice from the help line. The father later began to sexually abuse a newborn daughter, according to the article. That bishop held a church disciplinary hearing for the man, who then was excommunicated in 2013. The bishop who followed him in the lay calling did the same. The bishop, following advice from the help line about Arizona’s law on reporting abuse and its priest-penitent privilege exception, urged the man and his wife to report the abuse to authorities but did not do so himself. The AP story focused on an Arizona case in which a Latter-day Saint man confessed to his bishop that he had sexually abused his daughter. “Comply with legal requirements for reporting abuse.”.“Assist victims and help protect them from further abuse.The church’s published goals for the help line, established in 1995, state it is designed to:
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