Reply #11: Clergy are required by most state laws to report child abuse.

[kwassa]

http://www.legalmatch.com/law-library/article/clergypriest-privilege.html

Often, problems with the clergy privilege arise in cases dealing with child abuse. Every state in the U.S. has laws requiring certain categories of professional people to report child abuse. There are 35 states which either require clergy specifically to report any child abuse learned in confession, or else require all people to report any child abuse discovered by any means (including clergy). In these states, the clergy privilege will NOT apply in such cases (and in many states, in cases of child neglect as well). The remaining 15 states do not include clergy in the list of people mandated to report child abuse, so presumably the clergy privilege remains intact there.

However, many religious bodies (the Catholic Church being the most prominent example), do not recognize any constraint on the privilege, so there are many clergy who may refuse to testify about privileged conversations even if it IS required by law.

There is also a question of applicability when the clergy in question is a trained psychologist or secularly licensed counselor, whom often have certain duties to report crimes by state law. In such cases, the relevant question is whether the confession was made to the clergy in his religious capacity.