Majority of Utahns support removing clergy exemption for reporting child abuse, poll finds

By Connor Richards
Daily Herald
February 03, 2020

https://bit.ly/398gjCY

Salt Lake City Democrat Rep. Angela Romero, center, prepares to testify as Melissa Ridgway Kraft, left, and Stephanie Pitcher look on at the Utah State Capitol on Feb. 18 in Salt Lake City.

More than three-quarters of Utahns support legislation to remove reporting exemptions for clergy and other religious leaders who learn about abuse during a religious confession, a new poll has found.

The poll was conducted by The Salt Lake Tribune and Suffolk University between Jan. 18-22. Of all respondents, 67% said they “strongly support” legislation removing clergy exemptions for reporting child abuse while 11.2% said they “somewhat support” such legislation.

Only 7% of respondents said they were “strongly opposed” to legislation removing reporting exemptions for religious leaders and 4.4% said they were “somewhat opposed.” 10.4% of respondents said they didn’t know how they felt. The poll included 500 respondents and has a margin of error of 4.4%.

While Utah law mandates that any adult who learns about child abuse report it to legal authorities, there is an exemption for religious leaders who learn about abuse from a perpetrator during a confidential confession. Rep. Angela Romero, D-Salt Lake City, is sponsoring a bill, House Bill 90, to remove this exemption.

“For me, this is really about protecting children,” Romero told the Daily Herald in January, adding that the bill is in the “best interest of all Utahns.”

The poll included a breakdown of how Utahns of different religious affiliations responded.

Of all Catholics who responded to the poll, 77% said they either strongly or somewhat supported legislation to remove the clergy reporting exemption. 9% said they either strongly or somewhat opposed such legislation and 14% said they didn’t know.

Nearly three-quarters of “very active” members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 73%, said they supported removing clergy exemptions while 14% said they opposed it and 12% said they didn’t know.

The same percentage of Protestants voiced support while 16% voiced opposition and 10% said they didn’t know.

The greatest percentage of support for a bill like Romero’s comes from Utahns without a religious affiliation, 91% of whom said they supported removing reporting exemptions. Only 4% of respondents said they opposed it.

The bill has faced opposition, most notably from the New York City-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights. President Bill Donahue said removing the clergy reporting exemption would force priests to either break the seal of confession or face criminal penalty.

“No one’s going to go to confession if they think that what they say to the priest in his confidence could wind up on the front page the next day,” Donahue said, adding that he felt Romero’s bill was “outrageous from a First Amendment (and) religious liberties standpoint” and that he would be prepared to go to court if it became law.

The Catholic League urged those subscribed to its email list to contact House Speaker Brad Wilson, R-Kaysville, and voice their opposition to H.B. 90. Wilson responded to those who emailed him saying he did not support Romero’s bill, according to a Catholic League press release.

“I have serious concerns about this bill and the effects it could have on religious leaders as well as their ability to counsel members of their congregation,” Wilson wrote. “I do not support this bill in its current form and — unless significant changes are made to ensure the protection of religious liberties — I will be voting against the bill.”

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has yet to take a position on the bill. The Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City took a few weeks to review the bill but eventually came out in opposition.

In a column published in Intermountain Catholic on Jan. 17, Jean Hill, the government liaison for the Salt Lake City diocese, said the “motivation for the bill is understandable” but that it “places a Catholic priest in the untenable position of violating state law and facing criminal penalties, or violating Canon law and facing excommunication.”

“H.B. 90 is a bad law that does nothing to protect children and undermines the very real possibility that a sex offender might repent, thus allowing the priest to counsel him/her to seek help from police and trained personnel, making the world a bit safer for vulnerable children,” Hill wrote.

The bill was introduced in the House but has yet to be debated or voted on.