Church panel recommends tough stance against sexual abuse

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- A Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) panel investigating molestation claims against a missionary said Tuesday that church law should be changed so clergy and lay leaders are required to report child sex abuse claims to civil authorities.

The panel proposed the change to the denomination's Book of Order, or constitution, following its inquiry into allegations of sexual and physical abuse of missionary children in Africa that spanned decades.

The panel said church law should require clergy, along with church elders and deacons, to inform authorities of "any knowledge of physical abuse, neglect or harm, and of sexual molestation or abuse, of a child or adult without mental capacity."

The proposal comes against the backdrop of the clerical sex abuse scandal that has battered the Roman Catholic Church this year. In June, America's Catholic bishops approved a toughened sex abuse policy after scores of molestation charges against priests became public.

In its 173-page report, the panel said it found "overwhelming" evidence that a missionary sexually abused at least 22 girls and women. The panel cited 48 alleged incidents of molestation, most at boarding schools or other places in the Congo from the 1940s through the 1960s.

The girls were separated from their missionary parents, and many incidents allegedly occurred in the girls' rooms, the report said. The missionary often used massages or hypnosis to make victims more vulnerable, and some alleged victims were sick in bed, it said.

The panel did not name the alleged perpetrator or his victims, but the denomination has confirmed the Rev. William Pruitt was the focus of the investigation.