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CA state bill would require clergy to report child abuse

A Bay Area state senator has introduced a new bill that would require clergy to report suspected child abuse.

SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) – A Bay Area state senator has introduced a new bill that would require clergy to report suspected child abuse.

Currently, clergy members are exempt from reporting cases of suspected abuse or neglect if they learned of it through confession.

State Senator Jerry Hill (D-San Mateo) said, “those in the clergy have been able to abuse and get away with it. Doctors, teachers, police officers, therapists, coaches, they all have to report if they hear something or they see something. This bill will require that everyone has to say something when they see it.”

Dan McNevin is part of Survivor’s Network for those Abused by Priest (SNAP) in the Catholic Church. He said eliminating "any loophole would be the best protection for children." 

“They have exploited a well-intentional law to make it into their personal way of avoiding being truthful,” he said.

Last summer, a Pennsylvania grand jury report that found 1,000 children were sexually abused in the Catholic Church.

The diocese of San Diego suspended a priest during a sexual misconduct investigation and added eight to the list believed to have molested children – all are either deceased, in another church or left priesthood.

News 8 reached out to the church and the California Catholic Conference, which represents the state’s Catholic public policy, and received this statement:

"Inserting government into the Confessional does nothing to protect children and everything to erode the fundamental constitutional rights and liberties we enjoy as Americans. It's also why courts here and around the world respect the special nature of spiritual counseling."

Dozens of states have launched their own investigations into clergy abuse. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra has called on victims to come forward.

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