Breaking confidence

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: It’s Thursday the 13th of November.

Glad to have you along for today’s edition of The World and Everything in It. Good morning, I’m Mary Reichard.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown.

First up, reporting confessions that mention child abuse.

Earlier this year, Catholic priests sued the state of Washington after the legislature passed a law requiring clergy to call authoritie, if someone confessed to committing child abuse. Eventually, the state backed down, allowing clergy in the state to keep all confessions secret.

REICHARD: But not all Christians agree with this view.

Here’s WORLD marriage and family reporter Juliana Chan Erikson.

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: At the close of worship on December 31st, 2023, a praise and worship leader at a church in Overland Park, Kansas, invited anyone who wanted to speak to a pastor to come forward.

A man walked up and asked to speak to a pastor. Once they’d found a quiet place in the church, the man confessed to the pastor that he had sexually abused children years ago.

More on his story in a moment. But first, the episode highlights a question that has divided churches and denominations this year: how to deal with child abuse when it’s shared during a private confession.

Yesterday, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America met to consider a church policy about child protection. The policy, if the denomination passes it, would direct Lutheran clergy to inform authorities about child abuse heard during confession or pastoral counseling.

Child abuse experts applaud the denomination’s move.

VIETH: My hope is that this message will be read and contemplated by all of Christendom: “Well, wait a minute, why haven't we engaged theologically with the issue of child abuse?”

Victor Vieth is the director of the Center for Faith & Child Protection at the Zero Abuse Project. He says this should be a model for other churches.

VIETH: Most churches don't have any policies. Those that do, they're pretty weak policies. They fall below the standards that I and other experts would recommend.

Lutheran Church doctrine views private confession of sin as useful but limits how private it can be.

VIETH: We want to keep confidence, we respect the confessional, but it must give way to the teachings of Jesus. And if keeping a confidence forces me to sin, then I break that confidence. And I think other Protestants and the Jewish community are, “We've never said there was absolute confidentiality when you're talking to your pastor.”

Roman Catholics take a different view. Josh Mercer is the cofounder of CatholicVote. He told me in an interview back in May that Catholics are concerned that adding limits would deter sinners from confessing all of their sins.

MERCER: Catholics know right now, they can go to a priest and they can say anything. If that priest had to turn around and said, Oh, by the way, I'm going to go tell the sheriff you just did that, then, well, why would you confess those sins? You would keep tight lipped.

The Bible seems to encourage both public and private confessions. James 5:16 says we should confess sins to one another. But 1 John 1:9 promises that if we confess our sins to God, he promises forgiveness.

What Catholics and Protestants agree on, though, is the need for the guilty party to turn from and accept the consequences of both the sin and the crime.

MERCER: The priest would then counsel that person. You know what? You need to go make this right. And you need to go to the authorities.

Still, the law protects the right for a person to discuss his sins in a private meeting with a priest or pastor. Currently 28 states require clergy to report child abuse, but most allow what’s called a clergy-penitent privilege for such meetings.

Lawyers say all of this gives churches freedom to decide what to do if a child abuser confesses.

MOTZ: There's also a lot of room for different approaches within the American tradition…

Chris Motz is senior counsel with First Liberty Institute.

MOTZ: I think that's been a good thing for us as Americans, that churches kind of get to figure out their own doctrine and their own governance without this sort of undue pressure from the state, you know, telling them how they have to regulate their own their own members.

It’s rare for someone to confess child abuse to a pastor, but it does happen, and Motz says churches should be proactive and prepared.

MOTZ: Understand your own theology and like what you feel called or to do by your denomination, by God, with the reading your scripture, your own tradition. Part two is understand if there's a conflict between where you stand and state law.

So what happened to the Kansas man who confessed to child abuse?

After the man admitted it, the pastor contacted authorities. In September, Charles S. Bell was found guilty of child sexual abuse. He will be sentenced tomorrow.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

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