OLYMPIA (WA)
Columbia Basin Herald [Moses Lake, WA]
March 24, 2025
By Elizah Lourdes Rendorio/Columbia Basin Herald Legislative Intern
Rachel Fisher’s parents sang kingdom melodies the day she was born. The sound of religion followed Fisher growing up, where her evenings began with religious studies and ended with Bible dramas lulling her to sleep.
Fisher, a fourth-generation Jehovah’s Witness and a survivor of child sexual assault, is an inactive member of her church. She traveled to Olympia to testify in support of a bill that would require clergy members to report child abuse they learn of while performing religious duties.
If Senate Bill 5375 passes and becomes law, religious leaders would have to report incidents to law enforcement or the Department of Children, Youth and Family Services within 48 hours, with no exemption. This would include information learned during penitential communication, such as confession in the Catholic Church or within the Committee of Elders in a Jehovah’s Witnesses Kingdom Hall, among others. Failure to do so could be considered a gross misdemeanor.
SB 5375 passed off the Senate floor Feb. 28 with a 28-20 vote, split nearly along party lines. The bill is Sen. Noel Frame’s, D-Seattle, the third attempt to push policy through the legislature as previous efforts stalled due to disagreements over whether to include an exemption for penitential communication.
“The majority of Jehovah’s Witnesses are honest, good-hearted people who have such a deep love for their God,” Fisher said.
During testimony, Fisher shared that her step-grandfather, former Elder Ernest Fyanes, was accused of abusing his two daughters before marrying into her family. He was reported to the Committee of Elders, the internal judicial committee for the Jehovah’s Witnesses, but never to local authorities.
Instead, the committee assured her family that he was a “good brother.”
Last year, Fyanes was sentenced in Maine for child sexual abuse and is now serving 20 years in prison, the maximum sentence for his crime.
Fisher said she feels the church’s justice failed Fyanes’s victims.
Washington is one of only five states where clergy members are not classified as mandated reporters, unlike doctors, teachers and others working with children.
“This bill is about the separation of church and state,” said Frame. “We as the state have a legitimate legislative secular purpose to protect children from abuse and neglect and that shall not be infringed upon.”
Opponents argue that without the exemption of penitential communication, the bill breaches the First Amendment, hindering the free exercise of religion.
According to Bishop Joseph Tyson of the Yakima Diocese, the Catholic church already has a policy requiring clergy members to be mandated reporters outside the Sacrament of Confession. He stated that, despite supporting the spirit of the bill, it would force priests to choose between breaking the seal of confession, violating church law, or breaking state law.
“(Requiring priests to breach the seal of confession) is not about civil reporting of abuse, that’s breaking our sacramental way we worship God,” Tyson said.
He noted that such actions would result in an automatic excommunication for the priest.
In 2005, Robert Fontana who is a lifelong Catholic and father of six as well as a former minister within the Yakima Diocese, spoke out against clergy sexual abuse. “I thought the community would actually rise up and stand with me,” Fontana said. “People accused me of trashing the church.”
In 2003, before Fontana resigned from the diocese, he reported that a man he supervised, who was training to become a deacon, came to him to withdraw from the program. When asked why, the man admitted he fondled his two nieces, one of whom was 10 years old. Fontana said he asked the man if he had told anyone about it, and the man said, “Only in confession.”
Fontana said no priest from the diocese, including the pastor the man confessed to, ever suggested the potential deacon was unfit for the diaconate.
“Had the girls not reported the abuse to their mothers, he would be a deacon and still have access to children,” Fontana said.
The family ultimately decided to not press charges, and the man was never ordained.
Tyson said the Diocese does a series of background checks on all clergy and volunteers. He explained the Diocese has a robust system of training on the prevention of sexual abuse of minors and vulnerable adults through their Safe Environment Program along with a Catholic Bishops Abuse Reporting Services hotline number.
Tyson said the Diocese is working to create a position dedicated to facilitating the Safe Environment Program. That position would, in part, grow the church’s training to help identify and name predatory behavior.
“We’re not going to use a sacramental seal in a sacrament to adjudicate a relationship with civil law,” Tyson said.
Fontana however, said confession is often where abuse occurs.
“While children are going to confess, that’s when (a priest) gains trust with that child, and then they’ll fondle that child,” he said. “Then they’ll tell the child, ‘You can’t tell anybody about this because it’s a mortal sin.’”
Fontana argued that the bill does not infringe on religious freedom but aligns with the Church’s moral teachings.
“The Catholic Church teaches that the government has a moral responsibility to protect the vulnerable and the poor in society and so we advocate for food stamps; we advocate for Medicare; we advocate for a social system that protects,” he said.
Frame asserted that the bill does not force clergy to testify in court. Rather, it mandates them to report to local authorities, ensuring the child’s safety.
“We don’t have to be complicit when your faith community decides to cover things up,” she said.
Mitch Melin, another former Jehovah’s Witnesses, said Kingdom Halls can create a culture of secrecy, preventing not only reporting of abuse but even the discussion of it.
Melin explained when abuse allegations arise, members must convene with the Committee of Elders who follow what is called the two-witness rule to determine guilt. That rule requires that abuse must happen either in front of another person or that similar abuse must be reported by a second person. Thus, if the abuser does not confess and no witnesses are there to support the victim, the abuser is not held accountable. As most abuse happens behind closed doors, many cases are dismissed and members of the congregation are forbidden from speaking about it, as doing so is considered slander.
“It’s almost like a bigger sin to talk about an allegation than the rape of a child,” he said.
In a written statement provided by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, United States Branch said the church will comply with any legislation passed. It also said the church has a history of providing guidance on child protection.
“For decades, Jehovah’s Witnesses have provided congregants with clear, timely, practical, and Scripturally-based guidance and education in religious magazines, books and videos on practical steps to protect children from the crime of sexual abuse,” the statement read in part.
The Branch added that when elders learn of an accusation, they immediately seek legal guidance. If they believe a minor is in danger, they will report it to authorities even if not legally mandated.
Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, a practicing Catholic, expressed strong opposition to SB 5375 and proposed an amendment applying the same conditions of client-confidentiality conditions granted to other professionals to clergy members.
The amendment proposes that clergy could disclose information without penitent consent “if failure to disclose is likely to result in a clear, imminent risk of serious physical injury or death of the penitent or another person.”
Frame objected to the amendment, arguing it would reinstate the current statute and create confusion for mandated reporters, broadening the loophole that allows the cover-up of abuse.
The amendment was not approved on the floor.
Warnick emphasized that she wants to help abusers leave behind poor behavior, not protect them.
“We have a duty as a faith to help people who are committing this kind of crime, but when it’s done in the context of a penitent interaction, then I believe that that’s a step too far,” Warnick said.
SB 5375 has moved over to the Washington House of Representatives and has passed one committee and will receive further examination by a rules committee prior to possibly moving to the floor for a vote by the House.