OLYMPIA (WA)
National Review [New York NY]
May 29, 2025
By James Lynch
Catholics bishops from the State of Washington have filed a lawsuit challenging a law requiring Catholic priests to break the confessional seal to report information about suspected child abuse or neglect.
Washington Governor Bob Ferguson (D), himself a Catholic, recently signed legislation singling out Catholic clergy as “supervisors” who cannot use legal privileges to defend themselves from its reporting requirements for child abuse investigations.
It grants protections to other professions including nurses and therapists, exempting them from having to report such information. The law is set to go into effect in July.
The bishops of Washington’s lawsuit filed on Thursday argues that the new law violates First Amendment protections, the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause, and Washington’s constitution. Catholic news website The Pillar first reported on the lawsuit.
“Washington is targeting the Roman Catholic Church in a brazen act of religious discrimination. Without any basis in law or fact, Washington now puts Roman Catholic priests to an impossible choice: violate 2,000 years of Church teaching and incur automatic excommunication or refuse to comply with Washington law and be subject to imprisonment, fine, and civil liability,” the lawsuit reads.
“The object of this law is clear: subject Roman Catholic clergy to dictates of the state.”
The lawsuit lists Ferguson, state Attorney General Nicholas Brown (D), and numerous local prosecutors as defendants. Religious liberty law firms Becket and the First Liberty Institute and white shoe law firm Wilmer Hale are representing Washington’s bishops. They filed the lawsuit in Tacoma District Court.
The lawsuit says each Catholic diocese in the state already has child abuse reporting requirements that go further than Washington’s law. Those requirements include divulging information to law enforcement or government agencies if church personnel suspect that child abuse or neglect is taking place. The Catholic bishops emphasized their support for protecting childen while defending the sacred nature of the confessional seal.
Confession is the process by which Catholics in a state of serious sin receive absolution for their actions and reconciliation with God and the church. Catholic priests are bound by the confessional seal to not disclose anything they hear in confession, lest they face the penalty of excommunication under the Catholic Church’s laws.
Washington Catholics uniformly opposed the law because of its requirement that priests break the confessional seal in certain circumstances. The legislation made it through after a yearslong process during which members of the Catholic clergy attempted to resolve the dispute with lawmakers and negotiate a solution to the problem.
“For generations, Catholics have sought forgiveness and healing through confession and what is said during that sacred time is completely confidential. That protection is known as the seal of confession, and it is one of the oldest and most solemn rules in the Catholic Church,” the Washington Catholic Conference posted on X.
“Now, Washington is eroding that sacred bond. The state recently passed a law requiring clergy to report suspected abuse or neglect, even when the information is learned during confession.”
Reflecting the church’s defiance, Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly promised the members of his diocese that Catholic clergy would abide by the confessional seal even if it means going to jail.
“I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishop and priests, are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail. The Sacrament of Penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane,” Daly said in a statement upon the law’s passage.
Priests who refuse to report information about child abuse that is learned in confession could face close to a year in jail and a $5,000 fine.
Washington’s law had support from advocates for victims of sexual abuse by clergy from the Catholic Church and Jehovah’s Witnesses.
The Trump administration quickly opened an investigation earlier this month into Washington’s law for potential constitutional violations. The Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division is conducting the investigation.
James Lynch is a news writer for National Review. He previously was a reporter for the Daily Caller. He is a graduate of the University of Notre Dame and based in the Washington, D.C. area.