On Friday, a federal court blocked a law in Washington state that would require Catholic priests to violate the seal of confession. The law required priests to report child abuse that they learn of during the sacrament on Reconciliation.
The law was passed earlier this year and signed off by Democrat Gov. Robert Ferguson, as Townhall previously reported.
Predictably, there was pushback. The Archdiocese of Seattle issued a statement in response to the law, vowing to excommunicate priests who comply with the law. Shortly after, Catholic bishops from the state of Washington filed a lawsuit challenging the controversial law.
District Judge David Estudillo blocked the law (via Catholic News Agency):
In the ruling, District Judge David Estudillo said there was “no question” that the law burdened the free exercise of religion.
“In situations where [priests] hear confessions related to child abuse or neglect, [the rule] places them in the position of either complying with the requirements of their faith or violating the law,” the judge wrote.
Estudillo noted that the measure as passed “modifies existing law solely to make members of the clergy mandatory reporters with respect to child abuse or neglect.”
As written, the law is “neither neutral nor generally applicable” insofar as it “treats religious activity less favorably than comparable secular activity,” he said.
The state could have made clergy mandatory reporters while allowing a narrow exception for confession, Estudillo said, as more than two dozen other states already have.
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According to the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, the law threatened to impose penalties of up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.
“This ruling confirms what has always been true: In America, government officials have no business prying into the confessional,” Mark Rienzi, president and CEO of Becket, said in a statement. “By protecting the seal of confession, the court has also safeguarded the basic principle that people of all faiths should be free to practice their beliefs without government interference.”
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