D076 Amend Canons IV.3.1 and IV.6.10 to Provide Whistleblower Protection and Prohibit Retaliation
Resolved, the House of ________________ concurring,
That Canon IV.6.3 hereby be amended to read as follows:
IV. Canon 6: Of Intake and Referral of Information Concerning Offenses
Sec. 2. Information concerning Offenses may be submitted to the Intake Officer in any manner and in any form.
Sec. 3. Any person other than the Intake Officer who receives information regarding an Offense shall promptly forward the information to the Intake Officer. A Bishop Diocesan shall forward information to the Intake Officer whenever the Bishop Diocesan believes that the information may contain conduct constituting one or more Offenses.
Sec 4. If the information is brought to the Intake Officer by a Member of the Clergy under the requirements of IV.4.1(f), then the identity of the reporting Member of the Clergy shall be held in confidence by the Intake Officer, if so requested.
Subsequent sections are to be renumbered.
Explanation
The revision of Title IV in 2006 added the requirement that clergy become mandatory reporters; however, no action was taken to protect the identity of clergy who report offenses to the Intake Officer, resulting in an inadvertent chilling effect in reports. This proposal aims to give confidentiality to clergy who must, by virtue of the canons, report offenses, and yet would suffer for doing so.