Why clergy MUST be mandated reporters when they learn of a child being sexually abused, yes, even if learned during the sacrament of confession.

As a young teenager, I was repeatedly sexually, physically, and emotionally abused by my parish priest several times a week for several years.  I eventually learned the same was true for my younger brothers. The priest insisted I go to him for confession, to confess my sins. That insistence was nothing more than a skilled predator ensuring I saw such actions as my complicity in the sexual contact the priest was perpetrating. In other words, the sin was mine, not his.

For a young teenager, these instances of sexual abuse were infused with a perpetrator’s faux love and concern. The priest often willingly lavished me with material gifts I could otherwise never have and took me on many trips away from home.  These acts were torturous, causing mind-bending conflict…