Catholic clergy members in Washington may be forced to choose between excommunication or disobeying the government because of a recently signed law that requires them to break the seal of confession to report incidents of child abuse. 

The Democratic governor of Washington, Bob Ferguson, signed a controversial law last week that requires clergy members to break the confidentiality of the sacrament of confession if they hear about an incident of child abuse or neglect during that confession. The state legislature debated the bill earlier this year despite concerns that it would force priests to choose between complying with the government or violating what is considered an essential rite.

In response to the signing of the law, the Washington State Catholic Conference, which represents the bishops in the state, released a statement assuring Catholics that their confessions would remain confidential. In the statement, the archbishop of Seattle, Paul Etienne, noted the verse Acts 5:29, which reads, “We must obey God rather than men.” 

He said, “This is our stance now in the face of this new law. Catholic clergy may not violate the seal of confession — or they will be excommunicated from the Church. All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential, and protected by the law of the Church.”

The statement added that the Catholic Church “agrees with the goal of protecting children and preventing child abuse” and that the archdiocese requires clergy members to report child abuse if they learn of it outside of confession. 

It also noted the Code of Canon Law states that a “confessor who directly violates the seal of confession incurs an automatic (latae sententiae) excommunication.”

The Department of Justice is also taking issue with the law. In a statement Monday, it announced it had opened a civil rights investigation into the “development and passage” of the law, which it said “appears on its face to violate the First Amendment.”

“Washington State’s new law adds ‘members of the clergy’ to a list of other professionals who are required to report information received in a confessional setting relating to child abuse or neglect to law enforcement or other state authorities, with no exception for the absolute seal of confidentiality that applies to Catholic Priests,” the justice department said. “Furthermore, the State of Washington’s new law singles out ‘members of the clergy’ as the only ‘supervisors’ who may not rely on applicable legal privileges, including religious confessions, as a defense to mandatory reporting.”

The DOJ’s assistant attorney general for civil rights, Harmeet Dhillon, said in a statement that the law “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.”

Despite concerns that the law could put priests in a position of having to comply with the government or face excommunication, the main proponent of the legislation, a state senator, Noel Frame, defended it. Speaking to reporters as it was signed, Ms. Frame said, “You never put somebody’s conscience above the protection of a child.”

More than half the states in America list clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse. However, the majority have exemptions for confession. Washington joins New Hampshire and West Virginia in not offering an exemption for confession. 

As the bill was being debated, the Washington State Catholic Conference said it would force a priest to “choose between compliance with the law or the loss of his lifelong vocation.” 

It also argued that most immediate indicators that a child is being abused” will be found “outside of the confessional” and that “what is required to ensure children are protected is adults well-trained to recognize the indicators. Not waiting until a confession which may not come until years later, if at all.”

Priests who do not comply with the law could receive fines of up to $5,000 and jail sentences of up to 364 days.