BY JIMMY LAWTON

North Country This Week

​​CANTON — A discussion regarding a state bill to make clergy mandated reporters of child abuse was shut down abruptly after John Burke, R-Norfolk, sought clarification on why the topic was being discussed.

St. Lawrence County Legislator Ben Hull, R-Madrid, brought the matter up for discussion June 12 at the County Operations Committee as “new business.”

He said that the legislators had recently been asked to take a look at Senate Bill 3158, which is known as the Child Abuse Reporting Expansion Act.

The bill has been supported by former members of Christian Fellowship Center after senior members of the church chose not to report allegations of child sexual abuse by a member to authorities. It has also been co-sponsored by Sen. Mark Walczyk, R-Watertown, who represents portions of St. Lawrence County.

Attorney’s take

Hull, a deacon at Christian Fellowship Center, asked for an assessment of the proposed state legislation from St. Lawrence County Attorney Stephen Button.

Button said that while the goal of the bill, to protect children from sexual abuse, is laudable; it goes to “attack” certain aspects of “truths,” known as the penitent priest exception.

The exemption operates in a similar, but arguably stronger, fashion to attorney-client privilege granted to attorneys.

“Buried inside the bill is language especially concerning for protestant Christians. The bill would make it such that anyone that works within a church setting in the administrative requirement be designated as one of those mandated reporters,” he said.

Button said the law would create difficult situations within churches as religious leaders would be at odds with their religious mandates and the law.

Opposing views

Legislator Jim Reagen, R-Ogdensburg, questioned what the bill would mean for Catholic priests and similar religions that include confessions as part of their practice.

“For those religions that have the sacrament of confession how would this affect their priests who have a person come to a confessional and confess their sins?” he said. “It’s my understanding that under the vow of secrecy that they vow… when they become priests they will go to jail before violating the sanctity of the confessional.”

“This bill arguably makes that unlawful,” Button said. “The would have to violate that tenet of confidentiality and disclose those materials under the same rubric of evaluation that a caseworker or teacher would have to.”

Reagen then questioned if the CARE Act would violate the First Amendment right of religious freedom.

“I cannot say yay or nay, but I think it could be subject to challenge,” he said.

Legislator Margaret Haggard, D-Potsdam, then shared her thoughts on the CARE Act.

“I want to get down to the nitty gritty about this. We are talking about children being sexually abused,” she said.

“We have a heinous case in St. Lawrence County about an organization that protected an offender. I think if we had our district attorney in here, he’d have a different take on this situation. Where the perpetrators were allegedly protected and they didn’t have access to the victims.”

Haggard said as a mandated reporter and a Catholic, she understands the concerns raised by Reagen, but that protecting children trumped those concerns.

“I’m a mandated reporter, there are other mandated reporters in this room, I understand the argument, I’m a Catholic,” she said. “When we go to confession it’s secret, but when we get down to what we are talking about we are talking about children being sexually abused. I have a problem with this.”

Burke then joined the conversation by questioning why it was being discussed if there was no resolution being brought forward.

“I guess I’m wondering why, is there consideration of sending a message down to Albany that we are opposed to this? Are we just chatting?” He asked.

Reagen then quickly interjected, asking if there was a motion on the floor and said he believed the discussion was out of order.

“What discussion?” Burke asked.

“Whatever it is we are discussing,” Reagen replied.

Operations Committee Chair Rita Curran, R-Massena, then moved the meeting forward.

CARE Act Exemptions

Notably the CARE Act, which has failed to make it out of committee for the past four years, provides some exemptions for clergy, despite adding them to the list of mandated reporters of child sexual abuse.

“A member of the clergy, or other minister of any religion or duly accredited Christian Science practitioner, shall not be required to make a report… If the confession or confidence was made to him or her in his or her professional character as spiritual advisor,” the bill says.

The bill goes on to say that if a clergy member “has reasonable cause to suspect that a child is an abused or maltreated child based upon any information other than through a confession or confidence… Then such member of the clergy shall promptly make a report… Notwithstanding the fact that he or she may have also received a report of abuse or maltreatment through a confession or confidence made…”

In other words, the CARE Act does not require a priest taking a confession to report an admission from a sexual abuser if it was given during a spiritual confession. However, if the priest became aware of the abuse from another means, even if the priest first became aware in confession, they would then be obligated to report the matter.

No resolution was put forward in support or condemnation of the CARE Act. There was no indication as to whether the matter would be addressed again at a later date.