Catholic Church Favors Mass. Bill
By John Mcelhenny, Associated Press Writer
Originally published by The Associated Press, August 8, 2001
BOSTON (AP) — A bill in Massachusetts that would require clergy to report suspected child abuse has gained a crucial endorsement—from the state's Roman Catholic Church.
As recently as last week, the church had criticized the legislation as a threat to the confidentiality of conversations between priests and congregants. But the church said in a statement Tuesday that it now supports the bill.
"I'm elated," said Democratic state Sen. James Jajuga, the bill's sponsor. "If there had been mandated reporting among clergy before, we could have saved some kids from abuse."
Jajuga, a Catholic, has pushed the bill unsuccessfully in the past three legislative sessions. Each time, the Catholic Church opposed it.
A House committee approved the bill on July 31. To become law, it must be approved by the full House and Senate and signed by the governor.
Under the legislation, clergy would be added to the list of professionals who are legally required to report suspicions of child abuse. The list already includes teachers, doctors and day care workers.
The bill would not require clergy to report anything they learn from church confessions.
A spokesman for the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, the church's official public policy arm, did not return telephone calls for comment Tuesday. In a statement, the conference said its executive director would help lawmakers pass the bill during the current two-year session.
Gerry D'Avolio, the conference's executive director, said last week that requiring priests to report conversations in the rectory or anywhere else would violate the trust people have in them.
The issue is an especially sensitive one in Massachusetts, where three-quarters of legislators are Catholic. Some lawmakers including Jajuga say the bill has a better chance of passing after recent reports of sexual abuse of children by priests and a church worker.
"There's no question those highlighted the concern among the Catholic hierarchy about this problem," Jajuga said.
Cardinal Bernard Law was drawn into the debate in June when he admitted as part of a civil suit that he had been notified that priest John Geoghan had molested seven boys.
Even after the report, Law transferred Geoghan to another parish, and later to other parishes around Boston. Geoghan retired in 1993 and was not defrocked until 1998.
Now accused of molesting at least 70 children at six parishes, Geoghan goes on trial in September.
Two weeks ago, Law defended his handling of the Geoghan case in public for the first time.
"Never was there an effort on my part to shift a problem from one place to the next," Law wrote in The Pilot, the Boston Archdiocese's newspaper.
