A number of people do not thoroughly understand the words: “Pastoral Care”. They think that these words are only applied for Catholics. In fact, all Christians use these words because they all worship the same God. There are several titles for the spiritual leaders such as Father, Priest, Pastor, and spiritual leaders depending on people’s own faiths.
Recently, there were three lawsuits related with such spiritual leaders. Some Christians sued their spiritual leaders due to their Pastoral Care Malpractice.
A/ First case: A treasurer confessed with his spiritual leader that he stole a sum of money successfully without being recognized by the Board of Directors of the Church. The spiritual leader then informed the Board with the purpose that was to recover all the lost money. When realizing that the pastor had informed the Board, the treasurer got very angry because he believed that a spiritual leader could never release any secret of the confessor who confessed with the pastor from a confession. The treasurer then sued the pastor because the spiritual leader had committed a Pastoral Care Malpractice. A court dismissed the case with the reason that all citizens had duty to report to the government or private organizations all crimes that happened within people’s knowledge. The court set asides the issue of religious faith because that issue was out of Court jurisdiction.
B/ Second case: A Christian came to his spiritual leader and sought advice whether he needed to see a psychologist or not because he was so depressed and intended to kill himself. After listening to the man, the pastor advised him that it was not necessary to see a psychologist. A short time later, the man killed himself. Knowing that the man who committed suicide had already asked the pastor about seeing a psychologist but the pastor did not encourage him to do so, the deceased’s family sued the pastor and requested the spiritual leaders to pay for their financial and spiritual loss. The Judge dismissed the case based on the reason that a spiritual leader was not a professional who was treating a patient. Thus, no malpractice was considered in this case.
C/ Third case: A couple lived together and did not legally marry each other. They were frequent parishioners of a Christian church. Realizing the situation of the couple, the pastor gravely announced the names of the illegal couple at church and ordered them not coming to the church anymore. The couple then sued the pastor due to the pastor violated their privacy and made them to loose faces in front of public. Until now, there was no judgment from the court yet.
Comments:
With the first case, things seemed easily to be solved as the Judge decided. Nevertheless, if a man stole money from someone, after confessing his crime to a spiritual leader, he needed to refund all the money he stole to the person whom he stole money from, then, his sin would be forgiven. There was one thing to be remembered: the issue of time, place, and means of the refund were not the responsibility of the spiritual leader who performed the confession to the man. If by any reason, after the confession, the man could not refund all the money that he stole as promised, the man, not the pastor, was totally responsible to God about his sin.
By the way, we feel sure that Catholic priests never release any secret that they gained from the confession room to harm the confessor, except the incident similar to what happened in the first case. If a pastor broke his promise to keep secret for his followers, no any Bishop or other Priest could give him a forgiveness. The pastor needed to beg for mercy from the Pope so that his sin could be forgotten.
There was a story about confession and the promise of a spiritual leader. Being suspicious with the faithfulness of his Queen, a King requested a pastor to release to the King all things that the Queen just confessed to the pastor. Of course, the priest denied King’s request and said that he forgot everything that the Queen said to him. The King got very angry and beheaded the pastor.
In the second case, some witnesses saying that the deceased’s family had abused their rights when they sue the spiritual leaders due to the suicide of their closed one. Many others presumed that the pastor might think that it was not necessary to see a psychologist because the story the might-be suicide told the pastor was so simple. On the other hand, even if the man saw a psychologist, nobody could guarantee that the man would never kill himself later on.
The third case seemed more complex than the above two. Many people complained that the spiritual leader announcement was unacceptable. Especially as an ordained priest, he could never do anything that harmed the honor and sensitivity of his followers in front of a congregation. Even if what the pastor said was true, he would not do that because it might cause some kinds of danger to the couple. In case the couple violated the regulations of the congregation, the leader might call for a meeting with the Board to vote on the subject and then, processed all necessary steps to have the couple out of the congregation secretly if the Board complied with the pastor.
Some other people expressed bad feeling about the pastor. They said that the pastor violated the promise when he was ordained as a priest that he would never release any secret that people disclosed to him. Christians believed that once the pastor was at the confession room, he would represent God to have mercy on the confessor, then, right after that moment, the pastor had to put asides all the stories that he just heard and never recall them.
On the contrary, as US Law defined, the pastor might be acquitted because he had freedom of speech when he said only the truth. He should be charged only when he twisted the truth and said something untrue to harm others. In that case, the pastor would be charged as an intention to slander in both misdemeanor and civil case. He would be fined a sum of money or be detained, or both, depending on different state law. For the meantime, we have to wait for the Court to decide.