WASHINGTON, DC
WTOP TV
January 25, 2019
By Neal Augenstein
With the past two archbishops of D.C. — Cardinals Donald Wuerl and Theodore McCarrick — at the center of the national discussion on clergy sex abuse, the District’s attorney general is proposing legislation to add clergy to the list of “mandatory reporters.”
“We’re not targeting the archdiocese, or any other religious entity,” Attorney General Karl Racine told WTOP. “What we’re doing is seeking to protect young people.”
A spokesman for the Archdiocese of Washington, Ed McFadden, told WTOP that the archdiocese has “trained and required all priests, religious employees and all volunteers of the archdiocese to serve as mandated reporters,” and suggested that the District is now catching up with the church.
“We, of course, have met with the archdiocese lawyers,” said Racine. “We also have a faith-based council, which is an informal group that we meet with from time to time” to discuss laws that may affect religious institutions, he added.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.