OLYMPIA (WA)
Komo News [Seattle, WA]
October 10, 2025
By Joel Moreno
Washington state has dropped its efforts to require clergy to report child abuse or neglect when the information is revealed during the rite of confession, but left other provisions intact, designating priests and bishops as mandatory reporters.
The decision settles a lawsuit over a state law, Senate Bill 5375, that would have required clergy members to disclose information learned about child abuse, even if they learned about it during the rite of confession.
The settlement means Catholic priests are not required to report information learned during confession.
“This is a landmark settlement. Washington state has promised not to force clergy into making an impossible choice between either obeying their faith or complying with civil law,” said William Haun, senior counsel for Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. “By agreeing not to enforce the law in what would have been an unconstitutional way, Washington state has left that sacred trust intact.”
Earlier this year, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed SB 5375 into law. The Washington State Catholic Conference supported an earlier version that had an exception for the sacrament of confession, but opposed the version that was signed by the governor.
The church filed a lawsuit, saying the new law violated constitutional rights to religious freedom.
In July, a federal court blocked the law before it could take effect weeks later.
“We are more than happy to be mandatory reporters. We just wanted that protection for the sacrament,” said Jean Hill, the executive director of Washington State Catholic Conference. “I would definitely say this is a win for First Amendment rights.”
Tim Law with Catholic Accountability Project fought hard to require reporting of suspected or known instances of child abuse or neglect even when the information came during confession. He called the settlement disappointing a pointed to a scenario where students at Catholic schools might reveal information that can’t be acted upon.
“It astounds me that a child might mention something horrible happening to them to a priest in that confessional setting and the priest has no obligation to report in that situation,” Law said. “That’s what’s disturbing in that the church would prioritize their privilege over protection of a child.”
Hill said there is a misconception that Catholic schools are somehow different from other schools when it comes to mandatory reporting.
Mandatory reporters are required to tell authorities if they suspect that a child is being abused or neglected, and include teachers, childcare workers, medical practitioners, and others.
Washington added clergy to this list with the passage of SB 5375. The confidentiality of confession needs to be separate from that, Hill said.
“It is giving that student the opportunity to tell somebody straight out what’s happening,” Hill said. “So then the priest can say, ‘We need to make sure you’re safe. Let’s leave the confessional, and let’s make sure that you are safe.”
Law said questions linger about how other religions, including Jehovah’s Witnesses and members of the Church Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, will interpret the settlement.
Law said his experience is that members of those religions define any conversation as confessional-like and all that could be shielded from reporting requirements.
“I think the agreement that was reached, the ‘confessional setting or its equivalent,’ what does that mean,” Law said.