https://apnews.com/article/mormon-church-investigation-child-sex-abuse-aedc8cfc9175ebadb18420ec25a5f99c

"A former bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who was featured in an Associated Press investigation into how the church protects itself from allegations of sexual abuse was arrested by police in Virginia this week after being indicted on charges he sexually abused his daughter while accompanying her on a school trip when she was a child, according to court filings.

Those charges were filed weeks after the AP investigation revealed how a representative of the church, widely known as the Mormon church, employed a risk management playbook that has helped it keep child sexual abuse cases secret after allegations surfaced that Goodrich abused his daughter Chelsea, now in her 30s, at their home in Idaho as well as on a school field trip to the Washington, D.C., area 20 years ago.

Goodrich’s arrest in Virginia comes nearly eight years after he was arrested in Idaho on similar charges. Chelsea and her mother, Lorraine, went to Idaho police in 2016 to report wide-ranging allegations of abuse during her childhood.

Those charges were eventually dropped after a key witness in the case, another Mormon bishop to whom John had made a spiritual confession about him and his daughter, refused to testify. While the details of that confession have not been made public, the church excommunicated Goodrich.

The AP’s investigation was based in part on hours of audio recordings of Chelsea’s 2017 meetings with Paul Rytting, a Utah attorney who was head of the church’s Risk Management Division, which works to protect the church against sexual abuse lawsuits and other costly claims.

Chelsea went to Rytting for help in getting the bishop to testify about John’s spiritual confession. During the recorded meetings, Rytting expressed concern for what he called John’s “significant sexual transgression,” but said the bishop, whose position in the church is akin to a Catholic priest, could not testify. He cited a “clergy-penitent privilege” loophole in Idaho’s mandatory reporting law that exempts clergy from having to divulge information about child sex abuse that is gleaned in a spiritual confession."

Previously discussed here:

https://www.exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,2498797,2498816#msg-2498816

Just putting this out there...

If your headline is "Ex Bishop Arrested" then adding "for sex abuse" is just being redundant.

It's interesting that the lawyer who is the head of the church's Risk Management Division likens a Mormon bishop's clergy/penitent privilege to that of a Catholic priest. Here's the thing -- a Catholic priest will not divulge what is said in the confessional to *anyone* -- not his colleagues in the priesthood nor his superiors. However, given that an excommunication happened, I doubt that the confession was only shared between the offender and the bishop. My guess is that at a minimum, the other members of the bishopric knew about it, and possibly others.

So my question for the lawyer is, under what circumstances would you share privileged information about your client with others? If you share that information, is it fair to call it privileged?

I don't think that the Mormon church nor certain legislators in the Moridor really grasp the concept of clergy/penitent privilege as it is commonly understood. Having said that, I don't think that confessions should be given a free pass. If you want to get right with God, then in my opinion you will also need to get right with the law.

Good point.

Think of it like the Trinity defense. If three entities are ONE god, then three Mormon leadership bodies are ONE clergy! ;-)

This person is acting as a lawyer for the church, not clergy. The analogy is ridiculous.

My point is that Rytting (not the perp) knows very well what attorney/client privilege entails. It means that whatever his client tells him is confidential and not to be shared with anyone else. I'm just saying that I find it disingenuous for Mormon bishops to invoke clergy/penitent privilege and then share that confession with other people in the ward (I'm assuming if the perp was excommunicated, then other people on the "Court of Love" were likely informed as to why.) IMO you can't claim "privilege" and then blab the news all over the ward.

Church statement on child abuse by church members:

https://news-ie.churchofjesuschrist.org/article/child-abuse

Excerpts:

“Simply put, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to child abusers. When abuse is suspected, the Church directs its members to first contact the legal authorities and then their local bishop for counseling and support. The Church cooperates fully with law enforcement in investigating incidents of child abuse and bringing perpetrators to justice.


“Members of the Church found guilty of child abuse are also subject to the laws of God. President Hinckley has said: "Our hearts reach out to the offender, but we cannot tolerate the sin of which he may be guilty. Where there has been offense, there is a penalty." Convicted child abusers are excommunicated, the highest possible discipline our faith can impose. Excommunicated members cannot take part in Church meetings or hold responsibilities of any kind within the congregation.


“Can child abusers who have paid the legal price for their crimes and gone through a rigorous repentance process with local Church leaders become members of the Church again? Yes. As Christians, we believe in forgiveness. But can they ever again, in their lifetime, serve in any capacity that would put them in direct contact with children? Absolutely not. Forgiveness does not remove the consequences of sin. Protection of the family is a first principle of the Church.


“Since 1995 the Church has placed a confidential annotation on the membership record of members who previously abused children. These records follow them to any congregation where they move, thereby alerting bishops not to place them in situations with children. As far as we know, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was the first religious institution to create such a tracking mechanism. We hold the family sacred and protect its children. This explains why the Church is one of the few denominations that imposes formal ecclesiastical discipline on mere members (as opposed to official clergy) for sexually abusive conduct.”

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Some of the statements in the church article may seem contradictory and may also not match the real life experiences of some victims and their family members. For example:

"The more difficult moral issue is whether a bishop should report abuse information to public authorities when he has obtained that information in an official capacity in the privileged context of a private confession. Apart from the difficult religious issue involved, some churches and professionals believe that to force clergy to report a private confession makes it less likely that child abusers will come forward to get help. They will likely continue to abuse. Others argue that law enforcement needs to be involved quickly because of the high risk of repeat offenders. There is no consensus on this difficult issue."

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I don't think you can say you take the problem seriously but then hedge about whether it's a reportable incident or not. I do understand that there are complexities. I don't have enough knowledge about the workings of the church to know how effective their approach is regarding this issue.

I also think that there is a HUGE difference between trained clergy and volunteers or recruits with no particular expertise in the kinds of issues that may come up in a church setting. I don't think they should be given equal status at all but that is certainly the way this church article presents their view on the matter.

I'm more in favour of people having formal training in the fields they're ploughing than in relying on some nebulous idea that any random person in a congregation who is assigned a task is endowed from on high with relevant knowledge and ability.

And what do church leaders in each congregation do if they know there is a child molester in their fold? Just avoid formally assigning the person to callings that may bring them into contact with kids? Not guaranteed to be the most effective deterrent I wouldn't think.

>> ..."some churches and professionals believe that to force clergy to report a private confession makes it less likely that child abusers will come forward to get help. They will likely continue to abuse."

People who engage in child sexual abuse are beyond help. They cannot be reformed. Anyone who knows the *least* bit of information about child sexual abuse offenders knows this. The Mormon church is simply too large and too rich to claim naivete about this. They have access to the best psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, etc. Offenders can *never* be around children again. There is no cure.

The Mormon church needs to quit acting like it doesn't know better. Or if church officials really don't know better, they need to pull their heads out of their nether-regions and get up to speed about how this all works.

THERE IS NO CURE.
REPORT THE OFFENDERS TO LAW ENFORCEMENT.
NEVER TRUST THEM AROUND CHILDREN AGAIN. NEVER.

It's not difficult!