SEATTLE (WA)
The Cor Chronicle - Student Newspaper of the (Catholic) University of Dallas [Dallas TX]
February 20, 2025
By Sam Korkus
The practical consequences for the Church and religious liberty
Recently, a set of bills have moved closer to being voted on in the Washington State Legislature that will have a massive impact on the future of the Church. House Bill 1211 and Senate Bill 5375 will remove all religious privileges that serve as exemption to the mandatory reporting of child abuse.
The bills say that any “member of the clergy” will now be required to report any suspicion of child abuse to the authorities. This includes any information a priest might have heard during the sacrament of confession.
Proponents of these bills say that there should not be exemptions for anyone when it comes to child abuse. They do not want any instances of abuse to slip through the cracks. This necessity, they argue, is greater than the right to religious liberty and should therefore trump it.
If they pass, the bills will have three possible effects.
First, if a priest reports child abuse, he will be excommunicated. It is a hard and fast truth about the Catholic faith that priests must stick to their promises to never break the sacred seal of confession.
Second, if a priest does not report abuse, he will be breaking the law. Naturally, if he is caught withholding the information he was entrusted with during a confession, he would either go to prison for up to 364 days or pay a fine up to $5,000. However, there is a question of whether anyone could find out if a priest is withholding such private information.
Third, the penitent will be less inclined to confess his sin if it involves or hints at past child abuse. This would be the greatest travesty of the whole ordeal: a sinner who wants to turn down the right path but fears being ambushed by the state.
The situation at large is quite distressing for the Church and its members in the state of Washington. Unfortunately, upon a little more digging, you will find that the issues do not stop at Washington’s borders.
In Alaska, Delaware, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Utah and Wyoming, state law either requires mandatory reporting of child abuse even among clergy or simply does not exempt the religious (according to a 2023 publication by the Children’s Bureau).
For example, section 261.101 of Texas’s legal code states that, “The requirement to report…applies without exception to an individual whose personal communications may otherwise be privileged, including…a member of the clergy.”
Not only are laws like these harmful to the penitent, the priest and the Church as a whole, but they are also a blazing infringement on the right to freedom of religion.
In a report from FOX 13 Seattle, Washington State Senator Noel Frame said, “If religious communities don’t want to put members of their clergy in impossible situations, then they can change their doctrine and their rules.”
Frame also said, “It’s been far too long that we’ve failed to close this loophole and provide the protections children need from abuse,” according to the Washington Senate Democrats website.
Child abuse is not something that anyone wants to let slide in any way or to any degree. However, we should not combat that evil with the requirement that priests become outlaws or martyrs.
These bills and all others that are either current or on their way to becoming laws need to be reexamined. Any concerned citizens of states affected by these laws need to reach out to their representatives and senators to convince them to move against any such infringements of religious liberty. If something does not happen to help priests, only negative outcomes are guaranteed.
Samuel Korkus is a sophomore English major. He is a member of UD’s Young Americans for Freedom chapter.