Should Catholic priests in Washington State be forced to break the confessional seal?

On May 2nd, Governor Bob Ferguson signed into law a new requirement that clergy of all faiths become mandatory reporters of child abuse. It’s a move that’s especially controversial for the Catholic Church because of the sacrament of confession.

Up until now, admitting to crimes during confession, in a private conversation with a priest, retained similar legal protections as attorney-client privilege. In a statement criticizing the new law, Seattle Archbishop Paul Etienne said the law violates the “seal of confession," and any priest who reports information received in confession “will be excommunicated from the Church.”  

Guest:

Dr. Russell Powell, the Father John Topel Endowed Scholar for Catholic Thought and Justice at the Seattle University School of Law. 

Links: 

Abuse survivors defend WA law that feds slam as ‘anti-Catholic’

Federal Courts: First Amendment and Religion

‘Excommunicated’: WA Archdiocese pushes back against mandatory reporting law, DOJ investigating

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