Our pastor has a pretty good solution to the problem of kids being alone with a priest in confession - he sits with the child in a pew in the corner of the church. He and the child are both out in the open where everyone can see, but they're out of earshot. That seems to work quite, well, and still fulfills the requirement that a person should be able to go to the sacrament in private. The kids seem to like it that way - it's much less daunting than going into a little room. Fr. Mike feels more at ease, too, since it relieves him from any suspicion.

I was a Cub Scout leader through the 1980s, when there was a lot of press coverage of sex abuse problems in the Scouts. Every Scout leader felt like a suspect at the time - it wasn't a good feeling. The Boy Scouts of America adopted a nationwide "two-deep leadership" policy, that required all activities to be supervised by two adults. That took a big burden of suspicion off us leaders. It also make it much easier for us to conduct activities - one leader could lead the program, while the other one handled emergencies and discipline issues and other needs. It was a simple, reasonable, and effective solution to a serious problem - and it had unexpected side benefits that made programs run much more smoothly.

The Scouts also did better screening of volunteers, and got legislation passed that allowed and required fingerprinting and criminal records checks on people who worked with children.

That's what's needed in this situation - reasonable solutions that are effective and easy to carry out, solutions that show respect for the vast majority of clergy and youth leaders who are completely innocent of any sort of misconduct with children. Restrictions that treat every clergyman and every volunteer as suspect, are not a good idea. There has to be a better solution.

-Joe-