Source: abajournal.com 7/21/25
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. (Image from Shutterstock)
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.
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…
A priest reporting child abuse. That rich! 😎