Catholic Church to excommunicate priests for following WA law requiring child abuse confessions to be reported

The Catholic Church reported that priests will be excommunicated if they follow a new Washington state law requiring clergy to overview confessions about child abuse to law enforcement Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession or they will be excommunicated from the Church the Archdiocese of Seattle stated in a report All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred secure confidential and protected by the law of the Church The Catholic Church agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse the announcement added noting that it remains committed to reporting child sexual abuse working with victim survivors towards healing and protecting all minors and vulnerable people The new law signed by Democrat Gov Bob Ferguson last week added members of the clergy to a list of professionals who are required to assessment information that relates to child abuse or neglect to law enforcement and the measure does not provide an exception for information offered at a confession booth DOJ PROBING 'ANTI-CATHOLIC' WASHINGTON STATE LAW REQUIRING CLERGY TO STATEMENT CHILD ABUSEPriests in the Catholic Church have been bound by the absolute seal of confidentiality an obligation that requires them to keep anything learned in confession a secret The Archdiocese of Seattle disclosed its policies already require priests to be mandatory reporters unless the information is received during confession While we remain committed to protecting minors and all vulnerable people from abuse priests cannot comply with this law if the knowledge of abuse is obtained during the Sacrament of Reconciliation its comment noted UTAH BILL WOULD PROTECT CLERGY MEMBERS WHEN REPORTING CHILD ABUSE TO POLICEThe U S Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division has opened an research into the law for achievable violations of the First Amendment's religious protections SB 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 leadership Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K Dhillon of the DOJ's Civil Rights Division disclosed Worse the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges as compared to other reporting professionals she continued We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State s cooperation with our examination The bill will go into effect on July Washington is one of just five states that does not explicitly or implicitly require clergy to account suspected child abuse or neglect a federal account shows according to Fox Greater part states exempt information obtained through confession from mandatory reporting but Washington now joins just a handful of states that do not provide such exemptions This new law singles out religion and is clearly both authorities overreach and a double standard the Archdiocese of Seattle noted The line between Church and state has been crossed and demands to be walked back People of every religion in the State of Washington and beyond should be alarmed by this overreach of our Legislature and Governor