You have probably heard about law in Washington that priests will be required to divulge to law enforcement anything about child abuse which they learned when hearing confessions (in the internal forum).
Fox now reports HERE that priests who obey that and who tell law enforcement something they learned during a confession will be excommunicated.
It’s canon law.
Can. 1386— § 1. A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.
Catholic Church to excommunicate priests for following WA law requiring child abuse confessions to be reported
‘Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession — or they will be excommunicated from the Church,’ the Archdiocese of Seattle saidThe Catholic Church announced that priests will be excommunicated if they follow a new Washington state law requiring clergy to report confessions about child abuse to law enforcement.
“Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession — or they will be excommunicated from the Church,” the Archdiocese of Seattle said in a statement. “All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential and protected by the law of the Church.”
“The Catholic Church agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse,” the statement added, noting that it “remains committed to reporting child sexual abuse, working with victim survivors towards healing and protecting all minors and vulnerable people.”
The new law — signed by Democrat Gov. Bob Ferguson last week — added “members of the clergy” to a list of professionals who are required to report information that relates to child abuse or neglect to law enforcement, and the measure does not provide an exception for information offered at a confession booth.
Priests in the Catholic Church have been bound by the absolute seal of confidentiality, an obligation that requires them to keep anything learned in confession a secret.
The Archdiocese of Seattle said its policies already require priests to be mandatory reporters unless the information is received during confession.
“While we remain committed to protecting minors and all vulnerable people from abuse, priests cannot comply with this law if the knowledge of abuse is obtained during the Sacrament of Reconciliation,” its statement said.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division has opened an investigation into the law for possible violations of the First Amendment’s religious protections.
“SB 5375 demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion cannot stand under our Constitutional system of government,” Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division said.
“Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals,” she continued. “We take this matter very seriously and look forward to Washington State’s cooperation with our investigation.”
The bill will go into effect on July 26.
Washington is one of just five states that does not explicitly or implicitly require clergy to report suspected child abuse or neglect, a federal report shows, according to Fox 13. Most states exempt information obtained through confession from mandatory reporting, but Washington now joins just a handful of states that do not provide such exemptions.
“This new law singles out religion and is clearly both government overreach and a double standard,” the Archdiocese of Seattle said. “The line between Church and state has been crossed and needs to be walked back. People of every religion in the State of Washington and beyond should be alarmed by this overreach of our Legislature and Governor.”
More Canon Law about the priest and the Seal.
Can. 983 §1. The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.
§2. The interpreter, if there is one, and all others who in any way have knowledge of sins from confession are also obliged to observe secrecy.
Can. 984 §1. A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.
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Given attacks on the confessional seal around the world, I am confused why there is not a louder movement within the Church requiring confessionals with fixed screens and reprobating “reconciliation rooms” which permit a more direct interaction between confessor and penitent.
Other than the obvious inanity of this, it does provide us yet another reminder of how we might reconsider the confessional: get rid of “reconciliation rooms,” and put back in confessional booths with screens between confessor and penitent. This ensures a greater sense of anonymity for the penitent, another layer of protection from a confessor who might someday be falsely accused of “abuse” of a penitent, and now protection from the law, because he’ll have no real information to give to the government (not knowing who anyone is).
Leaders of the Catholic church thought it was a good practice to install a veil between the confessor and the penitent. “Smarter” men came along and decided to remove the veil or the confessional all together. The “smarter” men were not so smart after all. I am sure there were face to face confessions when the confessional and veil was common, but priests are now at greater risk for no good reason. I suppose the “smarter” men may think we can solve this by eliminating the Sacrament of Confession.
Pray for priests!
Once again, apostate Catholics are deep in, if not at the bottom of this. Excommunicate THEM.
Look carefully at the bill that went to the governor for signature. It does not treat all privileged communications alike. Other classes of professionals who receive disclosures of abuse via privileged communications do NOT have to divulge them. This proves that this is purely an attack on the clergy and the Sacrament of Penance, and is not about protecting children.
And by the way, Washington State allows abortion and does not entirely exclude minors from transgender mutilation.
A priest whom I trust once told me that in seminary there was a mealtime discussion of what a priest could do if just before Mass a penitent told him he had poisoned the sacramental wine.
What they had been taught was that a priest could take *no* action of *any* sort connected to anything said in the confessional. Is this so? I had always assumed that as long as the penitent is in no way implicated the priest was free to, say, call the bomb squad if the bomb threat were delivered via confession.
One of those questions like the mouse in the host or the spider in the wine.
I have long believed these laws are going to be used thusly: send agents into the confessional who tell lurid tales and see if the priest does anything about it.
Entrapment is the point.