The US Justice Department is suing the state of Washington over a new law which requires Catholic priests to break the seal of Confession to report information about suspected child abuse or neglect.
The Trump administration says the law, known as Senate Bill 5375, violates the free exercise of religion for all Catholics, by forcing Catholic priests to violate the confidentiality seal of Confession.
Confession is the Catholic process for people in a state of sin to reconcile themselves with God by telling their sins to a priest.
Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said: “Laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the Sacrament of Confession in the Catholic Church have no place in our society.
“Senate Bill 5375 unconstitutionally forces Catholic priests in Washington to choose between their obligations to the Catholic Church and their penitents or face criminal consequences, while treating the priest-penitent privilege differently than other well-settled privileges. The Justice Department will not sit idly by when States mount attacks on the free exercise of religion.”
As it stands, the law will apply to all practicing members of the Catholic Church, including Catholic priests administering the sacrament and Catholic penitents participating in the rite. By breaking the seal of Confession, Catholic priests would be violating their vows and risk being excommunicated from the Catholic Church.
The law, which is set to come into effect in July, does grant confidentiality protections to other professions including doctors and nurses, exempting them from reporting sensitive information.
Bishops in Washington State have already filed a federal lawsuit against the law, arguing it is an unconstitutional violation of religious liberty under the First Amendment and 14th Amendment.
In their court papers they say: “Washington is targeting the Roman Catholic Church in a brazen act of religious discrimination.
“Without any basis in law or fact, Washington now puts Roman Catholic priests to an impossible choice: violate 2,000 years of Church teaching and incur automatic excommunication or refuse to comply with Washington law and be subject to imprisonment, fine, and civil liability.”
“The object of this law is clear: subject Roman Catholic clergy to dictates of the state.”
In the UK, Catholics have expressed alarm over the government’s new Crime and Policing Bill, which would require priests to violate the seal of confession if a penitent admitted to or had direct knowledge of abuse. Last month the Home Office said it was not contemplating any exception to the mandatory reporting duty for religious institutions.
A spokesman for the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales told The Pillar earlier this year that it was studying the bill and “engaging with officials, ministers, and parliamentarians” over its provisions.