{"id":4996,"date":"2006-02-01T11:39:50","date_gmt":"2006-02-01T11:39:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2006\/02\/confessional-unsealed.html"},"modified":"2006-02-01T11:39:50","modified_gmt":"2006-02-01T11:39:50","slug":"confessional-unsealed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/02\/confessional-unsealed.html","title":{"rendered":"Confessional Unsealed"},"content":{"rendered":"

In NH, a proposed law:<\/a><\/p>\n

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For the second time in three years, lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require religious leaders to report suspected cases of child abuse, even if they learn about that abuse in the privacy of a religious confession.<\/p>\n

The Diocese of Manchester opposes the bill, saying it would interfere with religious freedom without making children safer. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Robert Araujo at MOJ comments:<\/a><\/p>\n

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After reading Rick\u2019s posting and other materials associated with this development, I discovered that the current bill before the State legislature is very limited in its scope and undermines only one privilege. While the legislators are at it, why not expand the coverage and add the doctor-patient privilege, the spousal privilege, the lawyer-client privilege? They, too, can insulate many items from public scrutiny including child abuse. So why just this privilege involving the seal of the confessional? I can imagine many scenarios in which doctors and lawyers would have information concerning these tragic kinds of cases but their privilege is not before the legislature. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In NH, a proposed law: For the second time in three years, lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require religious leaders to report suspected cases of child abuse, even if they learn about that abuse in the privacy of a religious confession. The Diocese of Manchester opposes the bill, saying it would interfere with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\nConfessional Unsealed - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2006\/02\/confessional-unsealed.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Confessional Unsealed - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In NH, a proposed law: For the second time in three years, lawmakers have proposed a bill that would require religious leaders to report suspected cases of child abuse, even if they learn about that abuse in the privacy of a religious confession. 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The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. 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