John Herrod News Today

Rhett Hintze, a senior leader within the Mormon church in Pennsylvania, was charged on Jan 31 with failing to report allegations of sexual abuse against a former bishop under his charge.

Abuse within the church is rampant, with Mormon families said to be suffering extremely high rates of incest, victims claim.

Opinion: A bishop stays silent for years while a girl is being raped. Arizona law allowed him to do it and a key legislator wants to keep it that way.

PHOENIX – A Cochise County Superior Court judge has thrown out a bid by two survivors of family sexual abuse to sue the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

PHOENIX — A Cochise County Superior Court judge has thrown out a bid by two survivors of family sexual abuse to sue the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

The suit was filed in Arizonas Cochise County vs. LDS church and two bishops for failing to report to police what an abuser confessed.

A lawsuit against the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints could become the legal basis for the state Supreme Court to consider — and void — a statute that

For Star subscribers: An Arizona law protects members of the clergy from disclosing a worshippers confession of child molestation. A lawsuit aims to void that statute.

Clergy-penitent privilege and mandatory reporting existin complex tension. But child welfare has to come first.

Arizona's highest court has upheld a law allowing religious bodies to refuse to hand over documents or answer questions in child abuse cases if the crime was learned in a confessional setting.