re: WA new law requires priests to notify police if abuse is admitted during confession

1) This is a gross violation of religious liberty, as the SCOTUS has already said. In Trammel v. United States, 445 U.S. 40 (1980), the Supreme Court recognized "the human need to disclose to a spiritual counselor, in total and absolute confidence, what are believed to be flawed acts or thoughts and to receive priestly consolation and guidance in return."

2) Since the basic principle of US law is "innocent until proven guilty," the expansion of "mandatory reporters" clouds the issue of who is "the government." Since it is the government that has to prove guilt, it seems somewhat spurious to haphazardly force everyone to act as an agent of the government, especially where questions of self-incrimination and the Fifth Amendment are concerned.

3) With those in mind, it seems to me that clergy and mental health professionals should be shielded from mandatory reporting. Societies need some type of pressure release valve that would allow criminals to seek help due to feelings of guilt without fear of being immediately arrested. (This is different from teachers in that teachers are reporting suspicious activity not gained from any sort of confession from the alleged perpetrator.)

4) Violation of the confessional results in excommunication for Catholic priests. Priests will not comply with this requirement.

5) It is true that priests who are abusers weaponize the confessional against good priests. Many who were caught have admitted to confessing their sins to multiple priests to reduce the chance another priest could testify against them They would be able to accuse such a priest of violating the confessional.

6) While the stain of priestly abusers will haunt the Church for decades, the problem is too prevalent in all sectors of society. This law places priests and ministers as a scape-goat for a much deeper and much more serious problem.

7) I respect the opinions of those who disagree based on the seriousness of the crimes.

Peace.

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They use confession to cleanse themselves of guilt.

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That's the purpose of Confession and why Christ left it with us starting with the disciples.

But your relatives are absolutely garbage humans.

Exactly. Child abusers are all going to hell anyway. A few Hail Marys isn’t gonna change that.

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There are two exorcists in the Diocese of Springfield - Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and one of them is my parish priest. He told me that 98% of the calls he receives are from Protestants.

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The Exorcist case from 1949 was a Protestant boy. Blatty changed it to a Catholic girl.

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How about murder?

What about theft?

What about not paying taxes?

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All of these *can* be justified in certain circumstances. There is zero excuse ever for being a pedo. And the only one of your examples relatively close to being as grotesque as pedophelia is murder. You can’t compare a financial sin to one as evil as sexual abuse of a minor.

That’s an incredibly dumb law, and there’s a 0% chance that the priests will do that. Priests are not allowed to reveal anything that’s ever confessed to them, and there’s no way to enforce this anyway.

Just another waste of taxpayer money by a blue state

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WA new law requires priests to notify police if abuse is admitted during confession

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Yet Washington and other states have laws which mandate school personnel cannot alert parents of students who claim they want to change genders,

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this law isn’t about the child predators right.

It’s about the priests rights

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It’s more the law vs the Vatican.