Alaska’s closest U.S. neighbor is under a federal investigation after the State of Washington passed a new law mandating all Catholic priests break the seal of confession by reporting to police what people reveal to them in the confessional booth.
Priests who refuse to cooperate would face jail time.
In a May 6 announcement, the U.S. Justice Department said it has opened a civil rights investigation into the new law, which was signed off on May 2 by Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson.
The law adds “members of the clergy” to a list of professionals who are required to report information – received in a confessional setting relating to child abuse or neglect – to law enforcement or other state authorities, with no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality that applies to Catholic priests. Priests who break this seal are excommunicated, according to universal church law.
Critics of the law note its double standard and ineffective means. They point out that attorneys and others are immune from the law, and that sex abusers would simply refuse to go to confession if they knew priests were required to report on them.
Many Alaskan clergy travel to and minister in Washington and presumably would be impacted by the law. The current Archbishop of Seattle Paul Etienne served as Archbishop of Anchorage from 2016 to 2019.
“Once the state asserts the right to dictate religious practices and coerce information obtained within this sacrament – privileged communication – where is the line drawn between Church and state?” Etienne asked.
In a May 4 letter to residents of the Seattle Archdioceses, Archbishop Etienne said the church cannot obey the new law.
“This is our stance now in the face of this new law. Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession – or they will be excommunicated from the Church,” Etienne wrote. “All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential and protected by the law of the Church.”
Etienne emphasized that the Catholic Church agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse, and the Seattle Archdiocese “remains committed to reporting child sexual abuse, working with victim survivors towards healing and protecting all minors and vulnerable people.”
“Our policies already require priests to be mandatory reporters, but not if this information is obtained during confession,” Etienne added.
He noted that Washington bishops attempted to meet with the governor and express their concerns before he signed the bill, but he did not respond to their request.
Etienne explained that the new law is “specifically targeting religious conduct by inserting the government into the Catholic tradition, namely, the highly defined ritual of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The state is now requiring priests to violate an essential element of the rite, the confidential communication between the priest and penitent in which the absolution of sin is offered.”
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“Once the state asserts the right to dictate religious practices and coerce information obtained within this sacrament – privileged communication – where is the line drawn between Church and state?” Etienne asked. “What else may the state now demand the right to know? Which other religious practices will it try to legislate? Why is this privileged communication between priest/penitent the only one singled out? Why not attorney/client? Doctor/patient? Spouses?”
The U.S. Civil Rights Division will investigate the apparent conflict between Washington State’s new law with the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.
“SB 5375 demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion cannot stand under our Constitutional system of government,” said Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. “Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals. We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation.”
11 Comments
It doesn’t surprise me one bit that an abomination like the Roman Cathklic Church and it’s ranks of child rapists take their position against mandatory reporting of child abuse. Under their thinking, one can confess to torture, rape, abuse of minors and the confessional seal of silence takes authoritative precedence over secular law. I hope that there really is a hot hell for the RCC clergy. They deserve it!
Go straight to God, no priest needed.
where in the bible is this “sacrament ” exactly? like Israel the church made up its “laws’ and claims that it’s God himself who ordained it. Big miss, really big miss.
Try John 20:23. Protestant and evangelical ministers also enjoy this immunity, and many hear confessions in their own denominational style. if you are going to use the Bible as your sole source, I would suggest that you try reading it.
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To “Jones & Proud Alaskan”: The ignorance you espouse about Catholicism prevents your ability to think clearly. Why doesn’t the law require lawyers to report their defendants? Doctors to report their patients? No one will go to confession at all if priests obeyed it. A person guilty of sexual abuse would only go to confession if they were repentant of their sins, and would NOT receive absolution if they were not, but under this law they would never dare to enter the confessional. Ergo, the law is utterly USELESS. If you haven’t noticed, the RCC existed before the union of states, ALL of which guarantee religious freedom in their respective constitutions. When the USA wrote the 1st Amendment that promised freedom of religion, they knew about Church law that had existed for 1800 years. And how priests had undergone torture and death from not only pagan governments but also Christian ones that wanted to extract information from priests. Your anger at bishops and priests for their sexual abuse is reasonable, but how does this apply to an innocent priest, hearing confessions in a big city? Your anger ought to extend also to illegal aliens, the Biden Admin and the entire US gov’t for allowing sex trafficking. Evangelical and Protestant churches also have the same protection for their ministers, and are now put in jeopardy. And, their churches also have had many sexual abuse cases. The entire western culture is a mess. Take a deep breath and hopefully you will come to a more thoughtful response to this evil law. Abp. Etienne of Seattle, with whom I had a private meeting when he was in Anchorage, proved to be a sorry excuse of a liberal — but his response is utterly heroic in this matter, and puts the arrows right into the bull’s eye.
I’m a Christian not a catholic so I go straight to God, not a priest.
I didn’t disagree with your opinion.
I am heartened by Etienne’s response. I wish he had shown such courage while he was our archbishop here in Anchorage. He could’ve stopped this dead in it’s tracks (https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/anchorage/2018/04/06/with-nearly-all-ballots-counted-bathroom-bill-rejected-by-anchorage-voters/ ) if he hadn’t forbidden his priests from talking about it from the pulpit and hidden behind a false promise to come to the table with “all stakeholders at the state level”. As a mother with young children, I thought I would’ve been considered a primary “stakeholder,” but all my varied attempts at pleading with him to protect my family and children were met with the same rote email response by the woman in the chancery tasked with responding to me. I’m glad to see he’s not letting this issue in Seattle sail through without a response in defense of the Church.
Fertilization President mocked the church with a photo of himself in pope regalia. That’s a bigger story than this.
The only people offended were leftist and their media.
I call it a win.
Go touch grass. There is a whole world out there. Don’t waste your life away hating the leader of the free world. Get real man.
Game on 🙂 I DO read it quite regularly. I am a 40+ year follower of Jesus and an ordained minister in mainline Christianity so that should address your snarky reply. As for the verse, you sir need to practice proper exegesis and application of Gods word. Nowhere in John 20:23 does it allow for a secret confession of sin. You cherry picking an obscure verse, then applying to anyone other than the 12 it was spoken to actually makes my point. The church made it up in the same way Israel made up a plethora of religious laws, hence the “miss”. Forgiveness has NOTHING to do with cultural consequences for committing crime. Jesus Himself forgave the thief on the cross who then died on said cross as a result for his crimes. Absolution in the way it is being promoted by your additional posts is not biblical. It in many cases violates state law, and the churches made up laws are not “Gods” so forget that argument. In fact reconcile that with the numerous biblical admonitions to submit to authority. It’s there for “our protection”. The fact that you seem to support hiding the molestation of a child shows you are out of your depth on this topic and lack any common sense or understanding on the behaviors of molesters. MANY mainline churches have policies for mandatory reporting of child abuse. I would not set foot in the door of any that did not. I have counseled and walked molesters through the process of confession to Jesus and then to law enforcement. Frankly any refusal to do so would cause me to question their validity of their repentant heart. My hope is that those reading this realize MANY, MANY followers of Jesus would never support hiding such a horrible thing like this under the guise of a religious rule. Some of us 100% support the victim and also understand the tremendous danger a child molester is to the innocent. It’s no wonder Jesus said causing a little one to stumble is worse than having a millstone hung around your neck and being tossed into the sea. Shame on the Catholic Church and Shame on you Mr. Bird.