Stung by an alleged abuser's contention that his confession should be kept secret, the United Church of Christ is launching a lobbying campaign to persuade the Legislature to require that priests, ministers, and rabbis report suspected sexual abuse to secular authorities.
Massachusetts is one of 21 states that still exempt clergy from laws requiring people who work with children to turn in alleged sexual abusers, and the state has an unusually strict priest-penitent privilege law barring clergy from disclosing information they learn from individuals seeking spiritual counsel.
But pressure for a change in the law is increasing because of a Worcester court case in which a Congregationalist teacher is asking a judge to throw out his confession that he abused three girls because the confession was made to a group including clergy.
The law was already receiving increased scrutiny after a civil lawsuit against the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston alleged that Cardinal Bernard F. Law reassigned a priest to new parishes while knowing that the priest was an accused child molester.
''We've got to advocate for ways to change the law,'' said Susan Dickerman, associate minister of the United Church of Christ, who has e-mailed every Congregationalist minister in the state asking them to lobby lawmakers for a change in the law.
''This would free our clergy from agonizing over whether or not to report a suspected abuser,'' Dickerman wrote.
Dickerman said she has been flooded with e-mails from ministers wanting to help pass the bill. And a legislative staff member on Beacon Hill said support for the legislation has been trickling in.
''It would be a tragedy if clergy were prevented from reporting, and became the only adults in society not allowed to report these things,'' said the Rev. Nancy Rockwell, a United Church of Christ minister in Lexington, who said the Worcester case has motivated her to get involved.
The Massachusetts Council of Churches, an alliance of mainline Protestant clergy, is scheduled to debate the legislation this week, and the Massachusetts Catholic Conference, which opposed the legislation for years, is now supporting it after heavy publicity about its opposition.
''There is growing momentum in support of this legislation, particularly now that the Catholic Church has signed on,'' said state Senator Susan C. Tucker, Democrat of Andover. Tucker said that the Worcester case increases the odds of passage because it helps make it clear that the issue is not just targeting the Catholic Church.
Legislative staff members say there appears to be no opposition to the bill, which they say is one of the broadest in the country because it would apply not only to ordained clergy but also to laypeople with jobs working with children in religious institutions. But the bill's primary sponsor, state Senator James P. Jajuga, is leaving the Legislature to take a post as secretary of public safety, and the measure has yet to be voted on by the House or Senate.
In the absence of legislation, some denominations are imposing their own policies, essentially requiring that clergy turn in suspects as a moral obligation.
''I tell both the youth in our fellowships and the adults I work with that I am a mandatory reporter,'' said the Rev. Molly Wells Phinney, a United Church of Christ minister in Beverly. ''There can't be any real spiritual repentance without addressing the public justice element.''
The Department of Social Services says it does not track how many suspected abusers are turned in by clergy. But a handful of cases have become public; the New Covenant Christian Church in Boston, the largest Protestant church in the region, disclosed sexual abuse allegations against two church ministers this year.
''I believe clergy are morally mandated reporters, even if we're not legally mandated, and we are mandated to report the suspicion of child abuse,'' said the Rev. Patricia L. Liberty of Associates in Education and Prevention in Pastoral Practice, a Rhode Island firm that consults with Protestant and Jewish congregations about sexual abuse by clergy.
Liberty says denominations are increasingly open about dealing with allegations of sexual abuse, and fewer are insisting on conducting their own investigations before reporting abuse.
''More and more denominations are saying in their policies that they will cooperate with secular authorities,'' she said. ''I don't believe it's the church's responsibility to investigate. We're not trained for that.''
But many denominations have no clear policy on whether clergy should report sexual abuse to legal authorities, and many insist on conducting their own investigations. Few have taken a position on the pending legislation; even the Unitarian Universalist Association, which has unofficially expected clergy to report abusers, has not decided whether to endorse the measure.
''Clergy aren't mandated, but we encourage and urge clergy to comply with the expectations of other mandated professionals,'' said the Rev. Mark Hollingsworth, archdeacon of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts. ''It's kind of a difficult area because certainly the confidentiality of the penitent is respected. At the same time, we feel strongly that everything needs to be done to make this a safe church and a safe society.''
The issue has taken on international importance. Earlier this month, in France, a Catholic bishop was convicted of hiding the fact that a priest he supervised had been molesting children.
Locally, the issue has been spotlighted by the legal case in Worcester, in which Daniel Ferris, a religious education teacher, is asking a judge to suppress his confession to a group that included three clergy and two lay leaders of the United Church of Christ.
In a brief filed Friday, Ferris's attorney, David Ricciardone, said Ferris's confession should not be considered by the court because of a state law that prohibits clergy from testifying about ''any communication made ... by any person in seeking religious or spiritual advice or comfort.''
Ricciardone said that, even if clergy thought their meeting with Ferris was a confrontation and not a confession, the meeting had a ''clear religious tenor'' because of the presence of clergy, the recitation of a prayer, and the sympathetic language the clergy used to talk with Ferris.
But Assistant District Attorney Joseph J. Reilly III filed a brief arguing that ''the confrontational meeting at which the defendant made his admissions ... was not religious or spiritual advice or comfort.''
Michael Paulson can