The California Senate Public Safety Committee is considering a bill that would remove the confessional exemption from mandatory reporting laws, holding clergy legally accountable for reporting child abuse.
Currently under California law, “a clergy member who acquires knowledge of or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication” is not subject to mandatory reporting laws. SB 360 will cut out this exception, requiring clergy to protect abused children under their care.
Please ask the members of the committee to pass this bill and remove the confessional exemption from mandatory reporting laws in California. The Senate Public Safety Committee is meeting next Tuesday, April 2, at 8:30 a.m. in the John L. Burton Hearing Room at the Capitol (Room 4203). If you are not able to attend the hearing, please use our simple, automated system to contact the members of the committee. Feel free to use or adapt the talking points provided.
