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The Signpost [Ogden, UT]
April 14, 2026
By McKinna Baird, Contributor
This story discusses sexual crimes against children. Reader discretion is advised.
Almost 25 years ago, the Boston Globe released a series of investigative articles that looked into years of abuse one priest had gotten away with for decades. The case of that single priest led to the exposure of many other clergymen who had committed similar crimes. The research showed that the Catholic Church, with no preventative measures in place for such situations, only shuffled the abusive priests around from parish to parish, while encouraging victims and their families to remain quiet about the abuse.
This piece of journalism, among others, marked a significant shift in how the public expects religious organizations to handle instances of abuse. Churchwide policies are easily found online. Entire law firms have been dedicated to taking religious organizations to court, awarding victims financial compensation for the pain they have endured. Such law firms include Andrews and Higgins and Manly Stewart Finaldi. Multiple lawyers were contacted from both firms and didn’t respond to requests for comment.
The Catholic Church as a whole did not take action in response to the Boston Globe story until years later, when the late Pope Francis held a Summit for the Protection of Minors at the Vatican in February 2019. From that summit came a document from Pope Francis detailing definitions of abuse, direction to report, investigate and document abuse, how to care for the victims and direction to report the abuse to local authorities.
The document opens with an introduction detailing the need for these new policies, saying, “In order that these (crimes of sexual abuse), in all their forms, never happen again, a continuous and profound conversion of hearts is needed, attested by concrete and effective actions that involve everyone in the Church.”
In December 2019, the Catholic Church also abolished “pontifical secrecy” regarding cases of sexual abuse and child pornography. This decision led to more transparency with internal investigations and more collaboration with law enforcement when cases reached that degree.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for example, is a much smaller church, reporting roughly 17 million members, compared with an estimated 1 billion members of the Catholic Church worldwide. After the Vatican’s summit, the Church of Jesus Christ launched “Protection Training for Leaders of Children and Youth” in August 2019. The training was launched in North America with plans to expand from there.
After 2019, the Church of Jesus Christ also decided to part ways with the Boy Scouts of America, following a similar sex abuse scandal within that organization.
Unlike the Catholic Church, the Church of Jesus Christ did have a unique guardrail in place for instances of abuse within the organization: a phone help-line for the lay clergy the Church of Jesus Christ appoints.
In 1995, the Church of Jesus Christ established the confidential abuse help line, available to local clergy such as bishops and stake presidents. Church documents state that the help line connects clergy to “legal and clinical professionals” to answer questions about abuse situations. According to the Church’s General Handbook Section 38 Church Policies and Guidelines, “…leaders should promptly call the help line about every situation in which a person may have been abused — or is at risk of being abused. They should also call it if they become aware of a member viewing, purchasing or distributing child pornography.”
According to multiple sources, the help line connects callers to a legal team at the Salt Lake City law firm Kirton McConkie. Some press releases from the Church of Jesus Christ state that the help line also connects clergy to social workers or counselors.
In one such press release, the Church of Jesus Christ clarifies the purpose of the help line: “The Church abuse help line exists to help bishops and stake presidents protect and support victims of abuse and comply with civil reporting requirements. It is not intended to shield offenders or protect the Church’s image. Portrayals suggesting otherwise are inaccurate and risk undermining a resource designed to help victims and those seeking to assist them.”
The Church also claims to keep a record of abusers in members’ records to prevent abusers from being placed in callings with minors. In a document outlining policies members should follow to prevent abuse, the Church wrote that, “A person must not be given a Church calling or assignment that involves working with children or youth if his or her membership record is not in the ward or if it has an annotation for abuse.”
In addition to this, the Church claimed in a 2022 official statement that, “Any member serving in a role with children or youth is required to complete a training every few years about how to watch for, report and address abuse.”
Despite these previously and newly installed measures to prevent abuse, there are enough cases of abuse within the organization to garner attention.
In November 2025, Bravo reality TV star Heather Gay released “Surviving Mormonism,” a three-part docuseries available through Peacock. The docuseries focused on people who had experienced the Church of Jesus Christ’s response to abuse at some point in their lives.
In 2021, an independent Latter-day Saint sexual abuse database called FLOODLIT began compiling articles and reports of abuse involving members of the Church. FLOODLIT also claims to report on “… alleged responses by church officials,” according to their website. The organization is currently following 261 ongoing cases regarding abuse within church membership. Through the resources page of the FLOODLIT and Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) websites, both organizations were contacted for comment. Requests for comment were left unanswered.
FLOODLIT’s resources page also has information that directs survivors to supportive organizations and articles that have been written by other survivors. One article was written by a man who asked to go by “Joseph” to remain anonymous. According to Joseph’s website and his recounting of the incident in an interview, a teacher was told of the abuse he and his siblings had faced. The teacher reported his family to Child Protective Services.
On the day of the wellness check, a clergyman on the stake level of Joseph’s church made sure that the police officer who attended to the event was his own son, who reported that all was well. At another point, Joseph called CPS himself. He was hidden in the home of another member of their ward during the wellness check, ensuring that he would not be able to speak directly with an adult who could have helped him.
After the creation of his website, the Church of Jesus Christ hit Joseph with a Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation or SLAPP lawsuit in 2022 in an attempt to get the website taken down. “Their response to me going public about the abuse was to (file) … a SLAPP lawsuit,” Joseph said.
When asked whether he had considered taking legal action against the Church, Joseph admitted that it was something he had considered, but ultimately decided against. “I’m more focused on my website and spreading my story, instead of going after the Church legally, because it would be a massive uphill battle in the blood red state that I live in,” he said in an interview.
Decades after the abuse, Joseph is in therapy and active in communities of child sexual abuse survivors. After all this time to reflect, Joseph said in an interview that the fact that the Church uses lay ministry is a part of the problem.
“I mean, in an ideal world, the Mormon church would not have lay ministry,” he said. “The bishops and stake presidents and stake patriarchs are not employees of the church, so the church is shielded in that way.”