Lawmaker says clergy should tell of abuse suspicions
BY ERIC STERN
Of the Post-Dispatch
05/13/2002 05:15 AM
State Rep. Philip Willoughby
In the wake of a scandal that has led to the removal of eight Roman Catholic priests in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, a Missouri state representative will make a last-minute push this week to require clergy to report any suspected child abuse.
Rep. Philip Willoughby, D-Gladstone, is expected as early as today to offer an amendment to a bill on elderly abuse during debate on the House floor. It would require clergy to report possible abuse, just as teachers, day-care workers and doctors must do. The legislative session ends Friday.
"There's a perceived need to address the unfortunate accusation of cover-ups," said Willoughby, a pastor at a Disciples of Christ church. "When one family of faith is under fire, we all feel under fire," he said.
A similar measure is expected to be approved by the Illinois House this week. The bill was passed out of the Illinois Senate last week.
Willoughby's proposal has drawn criticism from victims of priest sexual abuse because it exempts ministers from reporting information they learn as a "spiritual adviser, confessor, counselor or comforter." The Illinois bill has a similar exemption.
The Missouri proposal allows church leaders to designate someone inside the church to make reports of child abuse suspicions.
A "horrific" loophole
David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, calls that a "horrific" loophole that adds another layer of secrecy and gives church leaders time to destroy evidence or allow a suspected minister to leave town.
Willoughby said he was willing to work with Clohessy to address the concerns. "If they see a loophole, we want to close it," he said. "This is an effort to keep any cover-up from occurring. We want the abuse reported."
The Missouri Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the Archdiocese of St. Louis and the Kansas City, Jefferson City and Cape Girardeau dioceses, has signed off on Willoughby's amendment and defends its approach.
The amendment "protects children and the elderly from abuse, while allowing clergy the ability to provide pastoral care for the people whom they minister," said Larry Weber, executive director of the Catholic Conference.
Under current laws, priests, ministers and rabbis are generally allowed to keep secret their private conversations with people they're counseling. That has been a problem for prosecutors who want clergy to testify about child sexual abuse.
The Catholic Church and other religious organizations have fought to exempt priests from testifying in cases of sex abuse, and last year the Catholic Conference pressed to change state law to exempt clergy in Missouri.
Church officials maintain that forcing clergy to reveal conversations taken during confession or private counseling would violate the First Amendment separation of church and state.
The Eisenhouer case
But prosecutors like Doug Gaston of Texas County say such provisions merely help shield child molesters.
Gaston's uses the case of Robert Eisenhouer to illustrate his argument.
Eisenhouer could spend the rest of his life in prison for allegedly raping two girls in 1997 when they were 3 and 4 years old.
But Gaston, a former state legislator, said he might not be able to use his strongest evidence, a confession that Eisenhouer, 35, allegedly gave two elders of his church, the Cabool, Mo., Congregation of Jehovah's Witnesses.
With victims too young to testify in court, Gaston was counting on having the elders testify about Eisenhouer's alleged confession.
But while the case was pending, the Catholic Conference convinced lawmakers last year to change a 1975 state law that said only lawyers can have privileged communications with their clients about child abuse.
Gov. Bob Holden signed the bill into law last July, officially exempting clergy from testifying in court about child abuse allegations.
"I got my legs cut out from under me by the Legislature," Gaston said.
In fact, the Catholic Conference introduced the change in the law because the Eisenhour case was before the Missouri Supreme Court, Weber said.
Lawyers for other religious organizations, the Christian Legal Society, the United Methodist Church and the National Association of Evangelicals, opposed Gaston. They wrote in court filings that "safeguarding confessions has been held sacrosanct for centuries."
Gaston countered that "the government's interest in preventing child abuse and bringing abusers to justice is a compelling one" that outweighs religious interests.
The court ultimately sided with the church elders on a legal technicality concerning the scope of the subpoenas. Gaston had planned to bring his argument before the court again, but the change in the 1975 law made his efforts moot.
"It spells it out now," said Weber. "Now everybody knows what the law is."
Including Illinois, 34 other states have similar laws. The Catholic Conference is currently working on a measure that would exclude clergy from revealing conversations about elderly abuse.
The bill is SB670.
Reporter Eric Stern:
E-mail: [email protected]
Phone: 314-727-6234
Edited to add reporter name & info.