OLYMPIA (WA)
ABA Journal - American Bar Association [Chicago IL]
July 21, 2025
By Anna Stolley Persky
Is a new Washington state law, which requires priests to report suspected child abuse or neglect, including information from confessions, an assault on the Catholic Church and thousands of years of religious doctrine and practice? That’s what the U.S. Justice Department says, asserting that it won’t sit “idly by when states mount attacks on the free exercise of religion.”
The law, which was set to go into effect at the end of July, states that members of the clergy must report suspected child abuse or neglect “at the first opportunity.” In mid-July, however, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to stop Washington from enforcing the portion of the law that critics says forces priests to break the confessional seal.
The Justice Department intervened in the case, brought by the Catholic bishops of Washington.
In a press release, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon stated that “laws that explicitly target religious practices such as the sacrament of confession in the Catholic Church have no place in our society.”
In its court filing, the Justice Department said the law “deprives Catholic priests of their fundamental right to freely exercise their religious beliefs, as guaranteed under the First Amendment.”
Mandatory reporting laws are considered important tools in the fight against child abuse and neglect, according to a court filing by the Washington state attorney general’s office.
[PHOTO: Washington State Sen. Noel Frame speaks during a debate on the state Senate floor over the bill. (Photo by Legislative Support Services)]
In general, the laws require professionals, including health practitioners, nurses, clergy, childcare providers and teachers, to report to a state agency or law enforcement entity when they have reasonable cause to believe that a child is experiencing abuse or neglect.
Confessional privilege, also called the priest-penitent or priest-clergy privilege, is traditionally recognized as the private communication between a religious leader and a congregation member, similar to the attorney-client privilege. Under the privilege, a religious leader can’t be forced to disclose the content of the communication to either law enforcement or during court proceedings.
More than half the states include members of the clergy as mandated reporters, but most also recognize the confessional privilege. Meanwhile, other states and Washington, D.C., have universal mandatory reporting, which the Washington atate attorney general’s office says, “appears to include clergy.”
The Catholic Church has strict rules about confession, during which penitents confess their sins to priests and receive forgiveness. Priests are forbidden from divulging information relayed to them during confession and are excommunicated if they fail to keep the communication “under seal.”
In a court filing, the Washington state attorney general’s office states that designating clergy as mandated reporters “treats them exactly the same as other professions the Legislature has deemed to be uniquely positioned to identify and report suspected child abuse.”
State Sen. Noel Frame, who sponsored the bill, described the privilege as a loophole that it was “long past time” to close.
“I know this this is a tough subject for many of my colleagues, especially those with deep religious views,” Frame said in a release. “I respect that, but this bill is about the separation of church and state. This bill is about the state’s secular responsibility to the public interest of protecting children.”
Hiram Sasser is executive general counsel for First Liberty Institute, one of the groups representing Washington religious leaders. Sasser emphasizes that his clients are specifically objecting to the portion of the law that affects the sanctity of the confessional. The purpose of the law, which is to protect children from abuse, can be achieved without infringing on the First Amendment rights of clergy, according to him.
“My clients support the law and mandatory reporting,” he says. “But the sacrament of the confessional is not negotiable. It’s important to the church both doctrinally and theologically. There’s no give there.”
[PHOTO: “These are canons that can’t be changed,” says Father Bryan Pham, a Gonzaga University School of Law assistant professor in Spokane, Washington. He adds that if a priest were to break confessional and report victims without their agreement, it would be “a violation of trust and like victimizing them twice.” (Photo by Zack Berlat)]
Father Bryan Pham is a Gonzaga University School of Law assistant professor in Spokane, Washington. He says the Washington law puts priests in an impossible situation in which they could be forced to choose between violating the law or breaking the fundamental tenants of their faith.
“These are canons that can’t be changed,” Pham says. He adds that if a priest were to break confessional and report victims without their agreement, it would be “a violation of trust and like victimizing them twice.”
In addition, perpetrators who believe their communications in confessional are no longer under seal might not share what they have done or are doing, keeping them “even more isolated” from their religious community and less likely to hear that they need to stop and get help, says Pham.
At least one in seven children experience child abuse or neglect each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It’s also estimated that at least one in four girls and one in 20 boys are victims of sexual abuse.
Paul R. Kiesel, a Beverly Hills, California, lawyer who has represented sexual abuse victims, says that while the priest-penitent privilege is important, society’s concern for the welfare of vulnerable children must be “paramount.”
“The privileges we have in this country have to give way when it would jeopardize the safety of children,” he says.