Catholic priests who hear confessions from pedophiles will remain legally shielded from protecting the children by reporting child abuse to authorities if the U.S. Department of Justice gets its way.
In a new lawsuit against the state of Washington, the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division is defending the Catholic Church’s “seal of confession,” arguing that the state’s newly signed mandatory reporting law violates the First Amendment and the free exercise of religion.
The DOJ said Monday that it’s suing in order to intervene and protect Catholic priests from having to choose between excommunication from the church — if they were to speak of a given confession — or facing potential prosecution by the state, if they did not comply with child abuse and neglect reporting mandates.
Law and Crime report: The lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington asserts that SB 5375, set to take effect as of July 27, violates the First and 14th Amendments of the U.S. Constitution by purporting to compel clerics to report child abuse or neglect and thereby override their sincere religious beliefs.
Under the law, when “any member of the clergy … has reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect, he or she shall report such incident, or cause a report to be made, to the proper law enforcement agency,” the law says. The duty to report already exists for others in positions of responsibility outside the context of religion, including law enforcement officers, psychologists, nurses, and child care providers.
A key distinction, however, is that confidentiality of the confessional is nonnegotiable under canon law, and the breaking of that seal is punishable by excommunication — being cut off from the church.
“By design, SB 5375 directly interferes with and substantially burdens this sacred rite. It adds ‘any member of the clergy,’ which expressly includes Catholic priests, as individuals who must report information relating to suspected child abuse or neglect to state officials or law enforcement,” the DOJ filing said. “The failure to do so subjects priests to criminal penalties and civil liability.”
“Although Washington, like every other state, recognizes a privilege for Confession and other confidential religious communications, SB 5375 strips Catholic priests of their ability to rely on this or any other legal privilege as a defense to reporting suspected abuse or neglect,” the suit to intervene added. “Thus, to comply with SB 5375, Catholic priests must disclose information even when it has been obtained solely through the sacred rite of Confession.”
The court documents note that the DOJ is not “challeng[ing] the inclusion of priests as mandatory reporters per se,” but specifically any mandatory reporting of what is learned through the confessional.
In a statement on the DOJ’s case, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon said SB 5375 and any other bills 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,” Dhillon added. “The Justice Department will not sit idly by when States mount attacks on the free exercise of religion.”
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