Clergy are exempt from reporting child abuse that they are aware of pursuant to A.R.S. § 13-3620(A)(2). Legislators and those protecting children have tried for years to get that changed in the legislature to no effect. Two recent cases have amplified that injustice.
On April 29, 2025, the Arizona Court of Appeals, Division One decided Rodriquez-Ramirez v. AZ. Ramirez was a pastor who confessed that he had sexual relations with the co-pastor’s 15-year-old niece. The co-pastor recorded the confession and shared it. Ramirez argued that it could not be used in his criminal trial because of the clergy-penitent privilege under A.R.S. § 13-4062.3 because he was talking to the co-pastor as a penitent. The lower court let the tape in ruling that the co-pastor was not acting in a professional capacity at the time. The appeals court reversed.
