this post was submitted on 09 May 2025

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559

Catholic Church To Excommunicate Priests for Following New US State Law (www.newsweek.com)

submitted 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) by nothingcorporate@lemmy.today to c/news@lemmy.world

171 comments fedilink hide all child comments

The Catholic Church has issued a warning to its clergy in Washington state: Any priest who complies with a new law requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities will be excommunicated.

https://www.newsweek.com/catholic-church-excommunicate-priests-following-new-us-state-law-2069039

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[–] TheRealKuni@midwest.social 10 points 51 minutes ago (1 children)

Separation of church and state goes both ways.

Confession is a religious rite. Try to legislate that rite is a violation of that separation.

Priests are bound by their office to maintain absolute confidentiality of confessed sins. Otherwise people are not likely to confess their sins.

It doesn’t matter how you, personally, feel about this or their religion or the value of confession as a sacrament, that’s their religion. The state doesn’t get to intervene.

The church should stay out of state affairs, and the state should stay out of church affairs. Exceptions exist, like when practices are outright criminal in themselves. But the state cannot compel a priest to violate their office. This is long accepted. You cannot compel a priest to testify about confession, for example.

Priests can encourage people to go to the police, but that’s it. Their role in confession is between the sinner and their god.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 1 points 10 minutes ago* (last edited 8 minutes ago)

You know what that's fair. This is the "just" thing to do.
I still do hope priests will try to fix it in their own communities tho.

[–] aaron@infosec.pub 2 points 10 minutes ago

The Catholic church is hardly going to allow priests to be forced to go to the police and admit crimes.

[–] finitebanjo@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

Mixed feelings

Obviously the clergy have absolute values which they believe come from god, so obviously they're not equipped to make exceptions such as this as individuals. You would have to appeal the to pope and cardinals directly to change the rules.

How does the state intend to enforce this? Is there a priest registry in washington state, and does it account for all recognized religions for tax purposes? Are they going to take away peoples license to preach?

[–] theotherbelow@lemmynsfw.com 4 points 1 hour ago

Excommunicated vs Imprisoned. The choice is yours.

[–] LePoisson@lemmy.world 2 points 1 hour ago

Bro it's breaking Catholic canon. They can change that shit that's what the Pope is for.

Maybe God would be chill with revealing child abuse even if it comes from confession. Just carve a little exception out there. Crazy that the clergy would rather protect pedophiles than reinterpreting some doctrine.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 13 points 3 hours ago (2 children)

A curious question. Why isn't everyone a mandatory reporter for child abuse? And assuming there is a good reason why, then why are doctors and such specifically seperated out. And do priests fit that same criteria?

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 8 points 1 hour ago

You've touched on a key point, I think. Doctors and other professionals have mandatory reporting because a) they are in positions of respect and trust within the community, and b) they are professionals, as defined in law, and have standards to uphold.

Priests definitely meet the definition of a), however b) is a bit of a sticking point: their role isn't defined by law, but by the church. Furthermore, a court can order you to go to therapy sessions, but they can't order you to go to confession - it's completely voluntary. A therapist could tease out previous abuse, but a priest will only hear what the confessor wants to tell them about.

I'm in line with you in thinking that everyone should report abuse, but I think that a priest has more in common with an average person in this regard compared to a person working in a legally protected profession. There would be legal consequences for impersonating a therapist, but not for impersonating a priest.

[–] InverseParallax@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

It has to do with professional training and responsibility (duty of care), coupled with kids trusting them more and they are considered to have some para-custodial responsibility for children.

Priests aren't entirely in that category, but they probably should be, the question is the relationship of the priests, ie a random priest who heard a rumor is very different from one who heard confession or tends the victim or abuser directly.

Also, you don't want to empower random-ass people too much, people are absolute fucking morons and media will incite them to do something more moronic:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/this-britain/vigilante-mob-attacks-home-of-paediatrician-710864.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pizzagate_conspiracy_theory

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blood_libel

Inbred rednecks just danger incarnate, empowering them in any way is insane and will guarantee needess innocent victims.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 2 points 3 hours ago (1 children)

So it was unclear to me from the article if it simply made priests mandatory reporters or if it went further. My understanding is that mandatory reporters don't have to report past occurrences specifically. They only havecto report if it is currently happening or they suspect going to happen. If that is the case, it should be fine. Confession isn't about what you are going to do.

[–] TWeaK@lemm.ee 4 points 1 hour ago

Priests are being made into mandatory reporters in Washington state. In Washington state, the mandatory reporting law appears to require reporting of all past events of abuse - it does not make reference to recent acts or imminent risk.

Sec. 2. (1) (a) When [any member of these groups] has reasonable cause to believe that a child has suffered abuse or neglect, he or she shall report such incident, or cause a report to be made, to the proper law enforcement agency or to the department

https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=5375&Year=2025

[–] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 119 points 1 day ago (8 children)

Why aren't all the preists who diddle kids excommunicated?

[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 hours ago

No one would go to church if they thought their kids wouldn’t get experience

[–] secret300@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 15 hours ago

Because that's the whole point of the church. It's just one big sham so they can diddle kids

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