Defending the seal of the confessional
I first wrote about why mandatory reporting laws without an exception for clergy-penitent privilege harms survivors about two years ago when such a law had been proposed in my home state of Delaware. At the time, I was still getting over the news that my abuse would not be prosecuted in the state due to an obscure statute in the statute of limitations.
While the bill never made it out of committee in Delaware, a few weeks ago the governor of Washington state signed a similar bill into law. The Department of Justice is now investigating whether or not such a law infringes upon religious liberty. From what I’ve heard from Catholic lawyers, the way this particular law is written is clearly discriminatory, not leaving room for clergy who may be civil lawyers to maintain attorney-client privilege.
But even if the law was well-written, it would still be egregious. From what I’ve read, though, the focus has been on requiring priests to violate their conscience or face imprisonment.
While it’s true that the majority of Catholic priests would not comply with such a law, as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse it is also clear that a law without clergy-penitent privilege also harms survivors and victims.
I wrote more about this in my latest piece for OSV News. I hope you’ll read it.
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