Washington state wants to put priests in an impossible bind: Break your vows or break the law. A new law, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in May, would require clergy to violate the confessional’s seal of confidentiality if they hear about potential child abuse. Failing to break the seal and report suspected abuse to authorities carries a penalty of up to 364 days in jail and a fine as high as $5,000.
Catholic clergy in the state sued, and U.S.
Washington state wants to put priests in an impossible bind: Break your vows or break the law. A new law, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson in May, would require clergy to violate the confessional’s seal of confidentiality if they hear about potential child abuse. Failing to break the seal and report suspected abuse to authorities carries a penalty of up to 364 days in jail and a fine as high as $5,000.
Catholic clergy in the state sued, and U.S. District Judge David Estudillo of the Western District of Washington blocked the law with a preliminary injunction on July 18. Judge Estudillo ruled the law likely violates the First Amendment’s guarantee of free exercise of religion because it denies priests the confidentiality extended to other professions. The state has until Aug. 18 to appeal.
Confession is an essential practice of the Catholic faithful, who believe it reconciles a sinner with God. In the sacrament, the penitent admits wrongs and receives God’s forgiveness through the priest’s prayer of absolution. The seal of confession is so crucial to the Catholic faith that any priest who violates it is automatically excommunicated.
“For us, that’s a matter of spiritual life and death,” says Bishop Robert Barron, an American Catholic evangelist who filed an amicus brief in the case. The bishop says even “the slightest suspicion” that one’s confessed sins might be repeated elsewhere is an obstacle to the sacrament. Any law that might discourage a repentant sinner from seeking God’s forgiveness would hinder the free exercise of religion. Washington’s law is “the most egregious violation of religious liberty” in the U.S. right now, Bishop Barron said.
Washington lawmakers passed another bill this year exempting higher education attorneys from reporting abuse related to clients they represent. For these legislators, sins confessed to a priest don’t merit the confidentiality of what is said to an attorney. That “appears to be a textbook example” of targeting religious conduct, Judge Estudillo wrote.
Washington state Sen. Noel Frame, the main sponsor of the bill, said during a committee hearing in March that even if the law conflicts with Catholic teaching, “I believe they can change their rules.” That’s more evidence of targeting, the judge said. Lawmakers knew confession is a “religiously sacrosanct” practice, and their comments leading up to the bill’s passage “evince an intentional abrogation” of the sacrament.
The Church’s child sex abuse scandals have made public defense of the seal more difficult. Sen. Frame said testimonies by survivors of clergy abuse and her own childhood abuse led her to sponsor the bill. In January, she said it’s hard “to stomach any argument about religious freedom being more important than preventing the abuse, including sexual abuse, of children.”
Protecting children is a laudable goal. But Jean Hill, president of the Washington State Catholic Conference, said dioceses in the state already require priests to report abuse to authorities. The new law, she said, would push people away from the sacrament of confession while doing little to protect kids. “In practical situations,” Ms. Hill says, “this bill has the very high potential of driving people who are abusing or being abused away from talking to anyone.” A potential abuser who would go to confession might be deterred if the sacrament isn’t confidential. If a victim tells the priest about abuse during the sacrament, Ms. Hill says, the priest and penitent can step out of the confessional, and “the mandatory reporting kicks in.”
If a person confesses to a crime like child abuse, Bishop Barron says, any priest “worth his salt is going to encourage that person to go to the authorities.” But a law that breaks the confessional seal may discourage potential victims and abusers from seeking the sacrament, eliminating the possibility of such an encounter. “You don’t get more honesty,” Ms. Hill says, “you get people going underground and not telling anyone what’s going on.”
More people might also stay away from the sacrament entirely. This “chilling effect” is one focus of a group of Orthodox Churches who filed a similar suit, says Eric Kniffin of the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. Kniffin, an attorney representing the Churches, says the law could push parents away from the confessional. In Washington, mandatory reporting of “child abuse and neglect” includes not just sexual abuse but also “negligent treatment or maltreatment of a child.”
The state advises “to err on the side of reporting,” Mr. Kniffin says. “It’s not hard at all to imagine a parent saying, ‘I sometimes see my child as burdensome. I lost my temper and yelled at my children.’ ” Would a priest be required to report such confessions? “It’s equally valid for someone to say, ‘I don’t want to put my priest in a position where he’s breaking the law because of my confession.’ ” To Mr. Kniffin, the bottom line is that exceptions undermine the sacrament in all cases: “Confession is either absolutely confidential, or it’s not.”
The state hasn’t signaled if it will appeal. Whatever the outcome, Bishop Thomas Daly of Spokane has made clear that his clergy “are committed to keeping the seal of confession—even to the point of going to jail.”
Mr. McKenna is a Robert L. Bartley Fellow at the Journal.
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