Around 2011, a bishop in Bisbee, Arizona heard a man confess to sexually abusing his daughter. He didn't call the police or child protective services. He called a helpline the Mormon Church set up for bishops, and the person who answered worked for a law firm.
On July 30, 2026, the Arizona Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the bishops in the Paul Adams case had no duty to report what they learned through confession. This Mormon Monday goes through the opinion, Arizona's mandatory-reporting statute and its clergy exception, and the Church's response, including what its General Handbook says about the duty to protect others.
Then the legislative record. Sen. Victoria Steele introduced clergy-reporting bills in 2020, 2021, and 2022, and none reached a floor vote. We look at the committee chairs who decided whether they would, and at a 2013 bill on the Colorado City Marshal's Office that passed the Arizona House 52 to 7 and never got a Senate vote. Colorado City's FLDS church is a separate organization from the LDS Church, and we cover why the comparison still matters.
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