Why making clergy mandatory reporters won't solve the Catholic abuse crisis

[guillaumeb]

94. Agreed.

In my over 30 years as a Union Representative, I told people that if they admitted criminal behavior to me, I was mandated to report it.


I dealt with one client in that entire time who had admitted in a plea deal to molesting a family member. The client was placed in a non-pay status pending removal.

I interviewed the client, and the client's spouse separately during the process. My impression of the client, who I did not know, was that he exhibited no emotion when describing the situation. Almost as if the situation was separate from him.

When interviewing his spouse, she explained that the family really needed the income and for that reason only, they were staying together. I gave her information on family counseling resources, and strongly suggested that she and the victim make use of them.

My job was to represent the client and enforce his contractual rights, which I did, but even thought he was returned to work, it made me very uncomfortable. What a horrible situation for a family to be in, where the victim and parent were financial and emotional hostages.