Religion Law Commons^™

The Pending Gauntlet To Free Exercise: Mandating That Clergy Report Child Abuse, Raymond C. O'Brien, Michael T. Flannery

Scholarly Articles

This Article analyzes the conflict between statutory child abuse reporting requirements for clergy and the clergy-communicant privilege for confidential communications made within specific religious practices. The constitutional conflict arises between the state's interest in the protection of children by requiring that suspected cases of abuse be reported and the clergy's interest in the free exercise of their religious tenets by maintaining confidentiality. This analysis recognizes that state legislators have broadened reporting requirements to include more and more classes of people in an effort to arrest the tremendous increase in child abuse in the past decade. As a result, the shield …

Pedophilia: The Legal Predicament Of Clergy, Raymond C. O'Brien

Scholarly Articles

This Article identifies the present posture of child abuse and admits that the incidence of child sexual abuse among members of the clergy is documental. Indeed, incidents of child abuse seem to be more common each day throughout all segments of the population. This has affected public trust and the public has responded by revoking such traditional clerical prerogatives as the priest-penitent privilege, developing a theory of abuse in gestation, and demanding better treatment for offenders through therapy.

The precise scope of this Article is to offer recommendations concerning the legal, medical and social predicament of pedophilia regarding issues that …