The Catholic Church and the federal government have responded strongly to new legislation in Washington state that requires pastors to report child abuse or neglect law enforcement after passing confessions to understand the crime.
Gov. Mike Ferguson signed a controversial bill last week that would have to report child abuse without exemption from information disclosed during pleas. Confessions were previously considered privileged.
As of 2024, the Archdiocese of Seattle, consisting of 160 pastors and 90 permanent deacons, said he would expel pastors who comply with the legislation. Meanwhile, the Justice Department called the law “anti-Catholic” in a statement announcing an investigation into the policy, just days before the Vatican chose the first pope from the United States.
The Archdiocese of Seattle warned in a statement that breaking the faith in confession was a reason to get the pastor to kick out of the church, essentially reaffirming the rules already set for Catholic clergy.
"Catholic clergy may not violate the mark of confession, otherwise they will be deported from the church," the Archdiocese said. "All Catholics must know and ensure that their confessions remain sacred, safe, confidential and protected by church laws."
The U.S. Department of Justice said it has opened up a civil rights investigation to Washington law, focusing on how it developed and eventually passed. It shows that the legislation may not be consistent with the First Amendment, and Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon said the legislation “requires Catholic priests to violate their deep faith in order to comply with the law.”
In Washington's report law, "clerdom" collectively refers to everyone who is responsible for religious duties in any religion, but is selected due to the confidentiality around it.
Ferguson's office addressed a statement to CBS News.
"In the face of the Trump administration's 'investigation', we look forward to protecting children in Washington from sexual abuse," the statement said.
Washington lawmakers are not the first to try to ask clergy to report child abuse, especially as the Catholic Church is increasingly facing public estimates of sexual crimes. Although most of our states have authorized abuse reporting for religious leaders, each of these laws includes exemptions from provisions learned through guilty pleas.
California attempted to introduce a bill in 2019 that requires clergy to report abuse without immunity, but the church Fighted The Legislature finally put it on hold.
The legislation was originally proposed by the framework of Washington State Senator Noel, whose jurisdiction includes Seattle. After two earlier attempts to pass the bill failed, the final version was passed during the legislative session this spring due to whether the disagreement should be exempted from reporting mandate.
Once the state Senate passed the latest bill, the framework said in a statement. “Too many children are victims of abuse.” “The legislature has a responsibility to take action and end generation after generation of repeated abuse cycles. When children seek help, we need to make sure they are helped. It’s time to pass this bill once and for all.”
Psychologist and professor Thomas Plante, who has worked in the church for decades and has written extensive articles on child sexual abuse in clergy, said that the removal of confession exemption could have unconscious adverse effects.
Plant told CBS News that, in his experience, understanding the “absolute” confidentiality applicable in church confessions encourages those who promise to commit crime to clean a pastor and then refer them to a psychologist like him.
He said he was transferred to him in this way during his career, and he then reported the situation to the authorities as a medical professional.
"The seal of confession is a global thing that has been going on for thousands of years, basically what you say is a seal that is totally confident, it gives people a place to talk about things they can't talk about anywhere else," Plant said. "It's an advantage. People involved in crime or abuse or anything else do have a place in the Catholic Church where they talk about it with 100% confidentiality."
Without such assurance, Plant said he suspected that Washington's priests would stop offering guilty pleas and instead direct people to seek services at churches in nearby states.
"I think that would be a terrible tragedy," he said.
Confession is the core principle of Catholicism. It requires private conversations in which the Representatives or laymen leak their wrongdoing to the pastor and then receive forgiveness on behalf of God. Everything said during the exchange is kept confidential.
Technically, pastors are bound to keep secret through religious oaths after hearing confessions, the church prohibits them from sharing the information they have learned in these meetings with others. Catholic doctrine explicitly prohibits them from notifying the authorities even if someone admits to crime.
The Archdiocese of Seattle said they agreed to the “target of protecting children and preventing child abuse” and were committed to reporting that information, as long as it was obtained in an environment other than guilty plea. It also accuses Washington State of violating the constitutional protection of religious establishment and freedom of exercise.
"With this law, Washington state is through inserting government into the Catholic tradition of religious acts, the highly defined ritual of reconciliation.
New Washington law requires pastors to share confessed information only if they admit to people who abuse children.
Last year, Washington's current Governor Ferguson remained the state's attorney general, but he pushed for an investigation into the Catholic leadership in Seattle, Spokane and Yakima for allegedly using charitable funds to cover up allegations of child sexual abuse by clergy. But when the church refuses to cooperate, the investigation faces a challenge, believing it does not need to obey subpoenas to obtain records.