Minnesota Catholic Conference’s efforts help tighten child protection law

A Minnesota law requiring people in schools, hospitals, psychological or psychiatric practices, social services and other professions to report suspicions that a child is being maltreated has another safeguard for children, thanks to a law passed this year by the Legislature.

The new provisions state in part: “A person who intentionally prevents or attempts to prevent a person mandated … to report under this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor.”

In addition, the law states that businesses, religious and nonprofit organizations, schools and other entities cannot have policies, written or otherwise, that “prevent or discourage a mandatory or voluntary reporter from reporting suspected or alleged maltreatment of a child.”

The Minnesota Catholic Conference (MCC) — the public policy voice of the state’s Catholic bishops — backed the bill. The conference brought the Catholic Church’s own struggles with child sexual abuse cases and its desire to prevent maltreatment of children anywhere to lawmakers’ discussions, said Jason Adkins, MCC’s executive director and chief counsel.

“It’s critical now that the Church speaks in defense of the well-being of the child on every level,” Adkins said. “And especially given the Church’s past in terms of sexual abuse and allowing that to take place in so many instances, we should now be on the front lines of applying the lessons we’ve learned and stepping into the protection of children.”

“This bill gets to the heart of dysfunctional institutional cultures that prevent children from being protected and prevent mandatory reporting laws from doing the thing that they’re designed to do,” Adkins said.

Rep. Jim Nash of Waconia, a chief author of the bill, said MCC’s assistance made a difference — particularly as he shared his own experience of abuse with fellow lawmakers.

“I grew up as an abused kid,” Nash told The Catholic Spirit. From a young age until he fought back at age 17 he was beaten by his father, sometimes with bumps and bruises, but eight times treated for injuries at the hospital where his mother was director of nursing. His mother — as a nurse, a mandatory reporter of suspected abuse — kept it secret. Nash said he asked her once why she didn’t save him from abuse and she replied, “’Well, I thought you could take it.’”

The MCC “made it known they were officially supporting the bill,” Nash said. “As I went through the agony of presenting it in committee and elsewhere, they would make statements about it, back me up.”

Adkins credited Nash’s courage and conviction in sharing his experience — and the courage of others who share personal testimony on a variety of topics in the Legislature — to help others.

“Being willing to step forward like that and show that vulnerability so that other people might be protected … I think Representative Nash is one of the most principled legislators at the Capitol,” Adkins said.

The Church is taking a similar path, with personal and institutional experience to share, Adkins said, at a time when children are increasingly being sexualized and commodified.

“We (must) have the humility to say, ‘Yes, we’ve made mistakes,’” Adkins said. “But at the same time … we can bring the right principles and the right perspective into these public policy debates; there are not a lot of other voices or actors in that space.”

The child maltreatment provisions are one example of the Church bringing its experience and its teachings — which are centered on Jesus and guided by the Holy Spirit — into meeting the needs of society, Adkins said.

The MCC is fully engaged in its Families First project of strengthening the family and ensuring the rights of children, he said. That can impact many aspects of life, from backing child protection laws and child tax credits to defending the right to life of the unborn, he said.

“We have to trust the Holy Spirit will give us the right words, and that grace will move in people’s hearts to move them to the right position,” Adkins said, referring to the importance of speaking and having the courage to do so even when being called hypocrites for past failures. “When we sow that seed, hopefully it will land on fertile ground. And that’s the work of grace. It’s the work of the Holy Spirit. We can’t control or manipulate that.”

Read the complete article at The Catholic Spirit.