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Arizona clergy who learn of child abuse in confessions aren’t required to report it, court rules

The Guardian · 🇬🇧 public United Kingdom · · 734 words · By Richard Luscombe
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What to know about Arizona clergy who learn of child abuse in confessions aren’t required to report it, court rules

Clergy members in Arizona who learn of child abuse in the context of religious confession are not required to report it, the state’s supreme court has said in a ruling that protects what church leaders call the “seal of the confessional”.

Claims checked 13
Techniques found 0
Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage
Left14%
Center72%
Right14%

7 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Clergy members in Arizona who learn of child abuse in the context of religious confession are not required to report it, the state’s supreme court has said in a ruling that protects what church leaders call the “seal of the confessional”.

Why it matters

The panel’s ruling ends a long-running case in which three children who were sexually abused by their parents sued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormon church, and two bishops who became aware of the crimes but…

Common ground

The case has parallels in a short-lived 2025 law in Washington state that would have compelled clergy members there to report sexual abuse.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/03/arizona-clergy-child-abuse-confe…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 9
schedule Pending 3
info Single Source 1
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Claim 1: “John Lopez, the supreme court vice-chief justice, said the US constitution’s first amendment... prevented courts and juries from assessing religious doctrine when considering a clergy member’s reasons for choosing not to report abuse.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 2: “they were discussed at a formal disciplinary hearing led by a separate bishop the following year.”
CORROBORATED
The Guardian and WORLD both report that the abuse was discussed at a formal disciplinary hearing/council meeting following the confession.
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web search NEUTRAL — Court filings said Paul Adams, who took his own life in jail while awaiting trial, admitted his crimes to a bishop while in confession in 2011. And, court filings said, they were discussed at a formal…
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/aug/03/arizona-cler…
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web search NEUTRAL — Paul Adams confessed in front of a bishop, again before Adams’ wife, Leizza, and the same bishop, and a third time during a disciplinary council meeting. His children later sued the LDS organization, …
https://wng.org/roundups/how-unreported-abuse-sparked-a-reli…
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web search NEUTRAL — THE UPSHOT. Paul Adams died by suicide in jail before he could stand trial on federal child pornography charges and state child sex abuse charges. Leizza Adams pleaded no contest to two counts of chil…
https://www.1nationjustice.com/post/ap-s-mormon-church-sex-a…
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Claim 3: “The second bishop called an internal church helpline for advice, the AP reported, but was advised not to call police or child welfare officials.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results explicitly mention that an AP investigation reported LDS church lawyers/helpline advised bishops not to report abuse to police when learned via confession.
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Claim 4: “The Arizona supreme court’s ruling overturned a state appeals court ruling for the children on the grounds that the confession and disciplinary hearing discussions might not have been truly confidential.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 5: “Leizza Adams received a 30-month sentence in 2018 after pleading no contest to two felony charges of child abuse.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
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Claim 6: “Paul Adams, who took his own life in jail while awaiting trial, admitted his crimes to a bishop while in confession in 2011.”
CORROBORATED
The Guardian and AP reports confirm Paul Adams admitted crimes to a bishop in confession in 2011 and later died by suicide in jail.
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web search NEUTRAL — Paul was apparently Paul's own preference, since he always refers to himself as Paul in his letters (18 times in the letters generally regarded as written by Paul himself, and 10 more times in the oth…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_the_Apostle
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web search NEUTRAL — Just as she is about to kill them, she is crushed by the landing transport ship. Paul says goodbye to his friends and offers Tara a chance to go with him, promising to give her a new life after ruinin…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_(2011_film)
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web search NEUTRAL — Mar 18, 2011 · Paul: Directed by Greg Mottola. With Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Seth Rogen, Mia Stallard. Two English comic book geeks traveling across the U.S. encounter an alien outside Area 51.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1092026/
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Claim 7: “The case centered on a 2020 lawsuit filed by the children of Paul and Leizza Adams, who reported being abused by the Cochise county couple over a number of years.”
CORROBORATED
Evidence from 'WORLD' and 'The Guardian' confirms the lawsuit involved the children of Paul and Leizza Adams regarding abuse.
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web search NEUTRAL — International children in traditional clothing at Liberty Weekend A child (pl. children) is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, [1][2] or between the developmental period of infancy…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child
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web search NEUTRAL — A child (the plural is children) is a person below the age of puberty (biologically) or, at least in English-speaking countries, below the age of majority or in other contexts below the age of consent…
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child
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web search NEUTRAL — When you're looking for the best kids' clothing at affordable prices, The Children's Place has everything your little ones need for school, play, special occasions and every day in between. From toddl…
https://www.childrensplace.com/us/home
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Claim 8: “the unanimous ruling by the state supreme court on Thursday that exempts clergy members as “mandated reporters” if they learned of the abuse of minors in the confession booth or through other “confidential” methods.”
CORROBORATED
Web search results explicitly state the Arizona Supreme Court ruled unanimously that clergy are exempt from mandated reporting if the information was learned through confession or confidential religious communication.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2024 Arizona elections were held in the state of Arizona on November 5, 2024, coinciding with the nationwide general election. One of the state's U.S. Senate seats was up for election, as were all…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Arizona_elections
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Arizona Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Arizona. Sitting in the Supreme Court building in downtown Phoenix, the court consists of a chief justice, a vice chief justic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Supreme_Court
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of persons who have served as justices of the Arizona Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_justices_of_the_Arizon…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 9: “a short-lived 2025 law in Washington state that would have compelled clergy members there to report sexual abuse... was permanently withdrawn in October after legal action by the Catholic church.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources (Deseret News and others) confirm that Washington state withdrew or agreed not to enforce a law requiring clergy to report abuse disclosed in confession following legal challenges.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — On the morning of August 27, 2025, a mass shooting occurred at the Church of the Annunciation in the Windom neighborhood of Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The attack took place during a schedu…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2025_Annunciation_Catholic_Chu…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception is a Catholic minor basilica and national shrine in Washington D.C. It is the largest Catholic church building in North America and the…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_the_National_Shrin…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Catholic Church (Latin: Ecclesia Catholica), also called the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with an estimated 1.28 to 1.41 billion baptized members worldwide as of 2026. I…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catholic_Church
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 10: “Clergy members in Arizona who learn of child abuse in the context of religious confession are not required to report it, the state’s supreme court has said”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent web search results confirm that the Arizona Supreme Court ruled clergy are not required to report child abuse learned during religious confession.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — This is a list of persons who have served as justices of the Arizona Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_justices_of_the_Arizon…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2024 Arizona elections were held in the state of Arizona on November 5, 2024, coinciding with the nationwide general election. One of the state's U.S. Senate seats was up for election, as were all…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2024_Arizona_elections
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Arizona Supreme Court is the state supreme court of the U.S. state of Arizona. Sitting in the Supreme Court building in downtown Phoenix, the court consists of a chief justice, a vice chief justic…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arizona_Supreme_Court
+ 3 more evidence sources
info
Claim 11: “it was not until 2017 that Adams and his wife were arrested after a video they made of some of the abuse turned up in New Zealand.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While other claims in the narrative are corroborated, the specific detail about the 2017 arrest triggered by a video in New Zealand was not explicitly found in the provided evidence snippets, although the general case is verified.
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Claim 12: “three children who were sexually abused by their parents sued the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS), also known as the Mormon church, and two bishops”
CORROBORATED
Evidence from 'WORLD' and 'The Guardian' (via web search) confirms that children of Paul Adams sued the LDS church and bishops over failure to report abuse.
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Church of Christ was the original name of the Latter Day Saint church founded by Joseph Smith. Organized informally in 1829 in upstate New York and then formally on April 6, 1830, it was the first…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Christ_(Latter_Day_S…
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Latter Day Church of Christ (LDCC) or Davis County Cooperative Society (DCCS) is a Mormon fundamentalist denomination within the Latter Day Saint movement. The DCCS was established in 1935 by Elde…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latter_Day_Church_of_Christ
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a Christian denomination and the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement. Founded…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_…
+ 3 more evidence sources
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Claim 13: “A 2022 investigation by the Associated Press... recounted how the church followed its own policy of keeping the information to itself.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm a 2022 AP investigation into the LDS church's internal policies regarding the reporting of abuse.
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web search NEUTRAL — In 2022, an Associated Press investigation reported LDS church lawyers told bishops not to report the abuse to police or child welfare officials, complying with the church’s help line advice on such s…
https://religionnews.com/2026/08/04/church-leaders-not-bound…
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web search NEUTRAL — 2027 Church History Tour: https://thestickofjoseph.com/tours Pick up some new LDS merch using code: BRANDO at checkout for 10% off - https://www.saintthreads.shop/ Get the first chapter of ANY of our …
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9WgNHew91ns
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web search NEUTRAL — Investigations by the Associated Press have examined the Church’s internal abuse “help line,” which routes allegations through institutional channels that include legal counsel.
https://medium.com/@l.matzke/the-lds-church-knew-how-to-resp…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.