Message to Rabbis and Priests: Protect Our Children!

Rabbis, confidentiality and other ethical issues

(This article was co-authored by Michael J. Salamon, PhD., and originally published by The Awareness Center back in 2005 and republished by The Times of Israel on March 3, 2015)

Growing up in the United States means you most likely know something about the Christian faith and their concept of confession. The most commonly known format is the one used within the Catholic church where an individual goes to a priest and confesses their sins. It is understood that what they tell a priest would be kept confidential. This is a hallmark of the Catholic faith. 

Often many individuals seek out spiritual guidance, which is considered a form of counseling, from their clergy. The problem is that in the US, there is a separation between Church and State and there are no laws on the books stating that clergy are required to keep what is said confidential. Talking to a spiritual advisor is the same as talking to a friend. Prior to communicating personal information with someone, it is always suggested that you establish a degree of trust between that person and yourself. 

If you should tell a friend secrets about yourself you have no way of being assured that what you tell them would be kept confidential. If your friend were to share personal information about you, you would have no legal recourse — except if what they said is untrue. The same could be said about any member of the clergy that you would communicate with.

One remedy to this situation is to have some sort of signed document between yourself and the clergy member (a written contract). If there would be a breach in the contract then you would have some legal standing in a law suit.

There is a difference when you speak to a licensed mental health provider and a rabbi, priest, or other spiritual advisor. A licensed mental health provider is bound by the ethics of their degree, and is required to follow the state and federal laws, pertaining to confidentiality. A rabbi, priest or other members of the clergy are not regulated and there is no legal remedies to situations relating to the violation of confidentiality.

It is also important to note that mental health providers are mandated reporters. What this means is that if you are a danger to yourself, or someone else — they are obligated by law to report it to the proper authorities. If a child is at risk of harm, they can NOT keep that information confidential. Many advocates for children believes the same should be true with clergy.

One suggestion is that prior to disclosing personal information about yourself or a loved one, you might want to consider writing up a document and have your clergy member and a witness sign and date it.

Another suggestion is that all synagogues and or other organizations that employ a rabbi or other clergy member have a written blanket statement regarding confidentiality, and make the statement legally binding.

Below are some suggestions and points that you may want to include in such a document.

1. Your name
2. The clergy members name and or the name of the organization/synagogue they are employed.
3. The date the confidentiality agreement is signed.
4. A statement stating the types of information that you request to be kept confidential.
5. A statement acknowledging the concept of mandated reporting.

Legislators reject bill requiring priests to break seal of Confession

 By Henrietta Gomes

Catholic Standard - March 6, 2003

Last week, Maryland State Senators rejected a bill which would require priests to report any information about child abuse obtained in the confessional except from the abuser. The bill was unanimously defeated by the Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee a few days after it was introduced by Sen. Delores Kelley (D-Baltimore). Asked whether the measure overstepped the boundaries of religious freedom, Kelley said during the hearing, "sometimes the state must intervene" to protect children.

Before the hearing, many Catholics from the Archdiocese of Washington contacted legislators by phone, e-mail, and fax, urging them not to pass the legislation. Writing in his weekly column in the Catholic Standard, Washington Cardinal Theodore McCarrick said he would instruct his priests to disobey such a law and would be willing to go to jail on the matter. Breaking the seal of Confession would violate canon Law, causing any priest who does so to be excommunicated.

Since 1987, a law in Maryland has been in effect that requires priests to report all instances of child abuse they hear about outside of the confessional.

"There is a mandate in Maryland that teachers and police must report any type of abuse, and so clergy should also report," said Kelley at the hearing last week. Passing the bill, said Kelley, would be in the best interest of Maryland's protection of children, "who are most vulnerable."

Ellen Mugmon, representing the Coalition to Protect Maryland's Children, testified that the state must "regulate religion when children need to be protected."

Vick Polin—a member of the Awareness Center that provides resources for Jewish survivors of childhood sexual abuse or assault—testified "because many cases have been covered up in the past, the bill should pass." Polin added, "If clergy were mandated to report then these people (abusers) will get help."

Arguing against the bill, Dick Dowling, the executive director of Maryland Catholic Conference, said, "There is not one example of a person suffering of being abused because of our Sacrament of reconciliation." About Confession, Dowling said "this is a time honored agreement," and he said the sacramental seal of Confession is a central tenet of the Catholic faith. He noted that the current abuse reporting law, which respects the privacy of the confessional, was "carefully scrutinized by elements of the interfaith community: when it was drafted in the late 1980s.

Father Daniel Mindling, a dean of Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmetsburg called the Sacrament of Reconciliation, "an act of worship which needs protection. You can't admit sins with no guarantee," he said. "It would weaken our ability to practice our faith. We believe God instituted this," the priest said about the sacrament. About abuse, he said, "If I learn about it in any other way, I report it."

The controversial bill would have required priests to report suspected abuse heard about in the confessional from a non-abuser, such as a family member. Church policy in the archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington requires priests and any church workers to report suspected abuse to civil authorities, but information learned in the confessional is confidential according to canon law.

David Kinkopf, an attorney for the Baltimore Archdiocese said, "Our country was founded on religious freedom and religious exercise." He said the proposed measure would be unconstitutional and violate the separation of church and state. 

State Sen. John Giannetti Jr. (Prince George's and Anne Arundel), a member of the Judicial Proceedings Committee, said in a statement that his office received hundreds of calls and e-mails on the matter. "When a man becomes a priest, he takes certain sacred vows," the senator said. "No law should impose on those sanctified vows, and I am going to make sure that they are upheld.