Mental Health Ethics: Counselor Response to Priest With Predatory Urges

Introduction

This paper examines several ethical dimensions surrounding a particularly difficult counseling scenario. The scenario involves a Catholic priest who admits to having sexual urges and attractions toward adolescent boys and who has gone so far as to engineer opportunities to be alone with them. He claims not to have acted on these urges and has therefore not violated any laws. However, the risk that he will eventually act in the manner of a child predator seems significant if nothing is done. While the role of a counselor typically precludes a breach of confidentiality, the concept of "imminent danger to oneself or others" is clearly in play here. There is never a situation in which engaging in sexual acts with an adolescent below the age of consent is acceptable — and this is true even without considering the moral repercussions, both Catholic-oriented and otherwise.

The Ethical Complexity of the Scenario

Catholic priests and other personnel acting in a predatory manner toward young boys and girls — usually the former — has been a pervasive problem within the Catholic Church over the years and decades. The problem is certainly not limited to Catholics or even to religious institutions generally, but the Catholic Church has been one of the most visible flashpoints of this crisis (Lueger-Schuster). The problem of child pornography, child molestation, and child abuse has become so entrenched and elaborate that virtual child pornography is created and disseminated, and there is even a national organization — albeit a group of pariahs — known as the National Man-Boy Love Association, or NAMBLA (DeYoung).

Even so, the case described here is far from clear-cut, for several reasons. First, irrespective of the history of other offenders and the admissions of the priest in question, no crime has actually occurred — unless the priest is concealing something. Second, counselors are almost never at liberty to divulge the content of a counseling session to anyone, whether it be police, family members, or colleagues. There is always an exception for situations where a crime has definitely and provably occurred. For example, if a counselor discovers that a child is being abused, reporting that to the police is not merely allowed — it is often required under the "mandated reporter" provision (Henderson). There is no ambiguity about what is going on in this scenario except for the fact that no offense has yet been confirmed, and it is not even certain that this is true, given that the priest may simply have withheld that information.

Given that a crime has not technically occurred, three options exist — and none of them are straightforward. The first is to notify the police. This is probably the most ethical and prudent step, but it is difficult to justify from a counselor's standpoint because no crime has occurred and there is little basis to hold the priest other than, perhaps, a mental health hold on the grounds that he poses a danger to himself or others. Notifying the church is another option but faces the same obstacle. However, so long as the counselor is clear about what has and has not happened, the church can make choices that protect children without necessarily violating the priest's privacy. The final option is to implore the priest himself to step away from his position in order to protect the children. Children cannot consent to sex, and it is never right for such acts to occur regardless of who is involved. Furthermore, the level of trust inherent in the position demands that the priest remove himself so that no one is harmed.

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