Civil rights probe launched over state abuse reporting law’s lack of Catholic confession protections

WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Justice Department said May 5 it opened a civil rights investigation into the development and passage of legislation in Washington state that requires clergy to report child abuse or neglect but provides no exceptions for clergy-penitent privilege.

Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 2 signed into law Senate Bill 5375, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Noel Frame of Seattle, which will make members of the clergy mandatory reporters, or people required by law to report suspected or known instances of child abuse or neglect. The version of the legislation signed into law did not include an exception to the requirement for sacramental confessions. Other mandatory reporters in Washington state include school personnel, nurses, social service counselors and psychologists.

While some have argued the bill addresses an important omission from the state’s list of mandatory reporters, others have expressed concern that without exceptions for the clergy-penitent privilege, the law could place Catholic priests at odds with civil law in order to uphold church law regarding the seal of the confessional.

The Justice Department said it planned to investigate what it called an apparent conflict between Washington state’s new law and the free exercise of religion under the First Amendment.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division said in a statement, “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.”

“Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals,” Dhillon said. “We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation.”

Every U.S. state, district or territory has some form of mandatory reporting law. Most states that specifically include clergy in their mandatory reporting laws provide some clergy-penitent privileges to varying degrees, according to data from the Child Welfare Information Gateway, which operates under the Children’s Bureau at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The Washington State Catholic Conference opposed the particular version of the legislation that was approved by the Legislature, urging lawmakers to amend it “to provide a narrow exception for confidential communications between a member of the clergy and a penitent person of faith.”

“The majority of states that include clergy as mandatory reporters include an exemption for confidential communications, demonstrating that the states’ interests in child protection can be achieved without violating the right to free exercise of religion,” the conference said in an April advocacy bulletin.

The conference, which is the public policy arm of the state’s Catholic bishops, previously supported a different version of the legislation to make clergy mandatory reporters with an exemption for the sacrament of confession.

After signing the bill on May 2, Ferguson told reporters that he is Catholic and sees the legislation as “pretty straightforward.”

“My uncle was a Jesuit priest for many years, (I’ve) been to confession myself — and so I’m very familiar with that,” he said, according to KXLY-TV. “I felt this was important legislation and protecting kids is first priority.”

In a May 4 statement, Archbishop Paul D. Etienne of Seattle said, “The Catholic Church agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse.”

“The Archdiocese of Seattle remains committed to reporting child sexual abuse, working with victim survivors towards healing and protecting all minors and vulnerable people,” he said. “Our policies already require priests to be mandatory reporters, but not if this information is obtained during confession.”

Archbishop Etienne expressed concern that priests would be placed in a position where they could not comply with the law if such information were revealed through the sacrament of confession.

“Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession – or they will be excommunicated from the Church,” he said. “All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential and protected by the law of the Church.”

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