A proposed law in Washington state would require priests to violate Catholic Church law by breaking the seal of confession.
The bill would amend the current state law that requires law enforcement, teachers, medical professionals or child care providers to report cases of child abuse or neglect to include church clergy that hear about abuse during the sacrament of confession, according to the bill’s text. Priests that break the seal of confession are automatically excommunicated from the Church according to Canon Law.
The bill was proposed by Democratic Washington Sens. Noel Frame, Claire Wilson, Jessica Bateman, Manka Dhingra, T’wina Nobles and Javier Valdez.
“Washington State has no right to force a priest to break the sacred rite of confession,” Tom McCluskey, director of Government Affairs at CatholicVote, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is nothing but an attack on the authority of the Church laced by Anti-Catholicism, seeking to put all things under the State’s own authority. ”
While the proposal offers an exemption in cases where information is obtained “solely as a result of a privileged communication,” such as legal communications with an attorney, it explicitly excludes members of the clergy and offers no other exemptions. Noncompliance with the law could result in jail time. (RELATED: Bishop Says Catholic Teaching Does Not Support ‘Open Border Policy’)
BOWIE, MARYLAND – MARCH 20: Father Scott Holmer of St. Edward the Confessor Catholic Church holds confession in the church parking lot on March 20, 2020 in Bowie, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images)
The new law would apply to any “ordained minister, priest, rabbi, imam, elder, or similarly situated religious or spiritual leader of any church, religious denomination, religious body, spiritual community, or sect, or person performing official duties that are recognized as the duties of a member of the clergy,” according to the bill’s text.
“This is yet another tired attack on the Catholic Church,” Andrea Picciotti-Bayer, director of the religious freedom organization Conscience Project, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “No priest will violate the seal. No unrepentant abuser would be absolved. Instead of attacking the Church, it’s better to look to the measures the Church now has in place to protect minors and help other institutions follow that lead.”
The Catholic Church in recent years has taken steps to increase transparency and make it easier to report instances of abuse within the church, creating a commission to help protect minors and track how churches are addressing reports.
Montana Democrats proposed a law in January that would similarly force Catholic priests to weigh the risk of excommunication with imprisonment.
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