Last week a headline in the local publication North Country This Week caught my eye. The article was titled “should clergy be mandated reporters?” and it detailed the sexual abuse claims made against a local church group.
As someone who is a member of the Roman Catholic church, I understand what it’s like to have allegations thrown against your spiritual organization and I think that some of the things my church has done in the past are awful. In fact, a big reason why I struggled with my faith was because of the allegations and controversy surrounding my church.
So, to jump back to the topic regarding the local North Country church, I understand more than anything that we need to hold people accountable for the abuses that they enable and participate in. The local church in question is called CFC or Christian Fellowship Center located in Madrid, NY. It is a primarily North Country denomination and is based out of the nearby town Madrid that began to grow in the 1970s.
They also have a place of worship in Canton located on Park Street. The details of the allegations made against CFC are much too expansive to detail in a short opinion piece.
The point of this article is not to talk about the specifics but rather to make a case as to how I believe we can help make a dent in the numbers of individuals taken advantage of by clergy.
However, I will provide a Cliff Notes version of this close to home problem. Sean Ferguson, a member of the church in Madrid, was charged with sexually abusing children in 2015. However, these charges were not filed until 2021 because top members of CFC decided not to report these allegations to protect one of their own. Although in my opinion any true moralist would have re- ported this incident right away.
Forcing clergy, like those at CFC to be mandated report- ers could have gotten sup- port to the people that needed it much sooner. It is not just about bringing sexual abusers and pedophiles to justice; it is more about the victim.
Whatever child that was taken advantage of did not get the help they needed because someone decided to try and save face for their religious organization. That child may have grown up thinking that what they went through was normal. That child’s needs were tossed to the side.
If these members of the clergy had been held accountable from the start and made mandated reporters then the victims could have gotten the support, they needed much sooner, and the abusers could have been held accountable before any other abuse took place. This is not just an opinion for CFC, but for my own church and for every church in the state of New York.
Hold your clergy accountable. Make them report abuse. Make the community a better place, and make the world a better place. Prioritize protection of the young.