One peril of pastoral care

Abstract

The minister is often called upon to step out of the pulpit and share his flock's personal problems. Other ministers have elected to serve as pastoral counselors, a somewhat specialized profession that requires additional training and a different life style. Minister or pastoral counselor, the clergyman and the congregation develop a rapport that leads to an exchange of personal information considered generally to be confidential. Question: Is it? Or should it be? In the nature of the profession, people confide, share, explain, converse, and open their hearts and minds to members of the clergy: priests, ministers, or rabbis. During visits, both formal and informal, ministers hear many facts, expres sions of feelings, and intimate personal opinions. Depending on his particular modus operandi, the minister may take copious notes, brief notes, or conceivably none at all. With the permission of his client or congregant, a pastoral counselor may make audio tapes or video tapes for personal use or for critiques or classroom use at various counseling centers for training purposes. The client is encouraged to be straightforward; if he is not open and honest, the whole counseling procedure will have little value. Therefore, in an atmosphere of sincerity and openness, all is shared and reduced to a mental record in the mind of the minister, perhaps a written record, and occasionally a taped record. This confidential relationship cannot be violated by the minister without personal, legal, and financial liability,1 and although in some circumstances a breach of this confidence may be warranted or required by law (i.e., when a third person is in clear, obvious, and imminent danger, or in response to a legally issued subpoena), absolute confidence is basic and essential to the clergy-congre gant relationship. In one area, this confidence may be violated and even shattered. Ministers are granted limited privilege from testimony in court in some jurisdictions.2 They can be subpoenaed by any party to a court action, either by subpoena for testimony or by a subpoena duces tecum, which would demand that the minister appear, with all relevant records specified in the subpoena, at a certain time and in a certain court. The court would compel the minister to give testimony either on behalf of his congregant or on behalf of the opposing party issuing the