Confessional concerns

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Coming up next: a new law in Washington state puts the privacy of the Catholic confessional to the test.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST:The law will soon require all clergy to report suspected child abuse, including what they learn in the confessional.

A group of Catholic priests is suing, arguing the law violates their religious duty to keep confessions secret. But some Christians don’t think confessions should be off limits.

WORLD’s Juliana Chan Erikson has the story.

FILM CLIP: I confess to Almighty God and to you brother that I have sinned. When was your last confession? I can’t remember. Can you remember approximately? I have killed Mr. Villette.

JULIANA CHAN ERIKSON: In the 1953 Alfred Hitchcock film I Confess, a murderer confesses to a Catholic priest named Father Logan. But when an investigator approaches Logan, he faces a dilemma:

FILM CLIP: Give me the name and address of the person. I can’t. Father, don’t you want to help me? I’ve done my best. But you refuse to answer my questions!

Here’s the problem. The Catholic Church—both the real one and the one depicted in the Hitchcock movie—forbids priests from sharing anything they’ve heard during the sacrament of confession. So if Father Logan tells the cops, he will be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. If he doesn’t, a man gets away with murder.

Now, Catholic priests in Washington state may face a similar dilemma. A new state law requires them to report child abuse or neglect—even if they learn about it in the confessional. If a priest breaks the seal of confession to tell the cops, the Catholic Church will excommunicate him. But if he doesn’t, he might go to jail.

FERGUSON: So for me, I’m aware of my upbringing as a Catholic and having an uncle who’s a Jesuit priest, this is very clear legislation.

Last month, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the bill into law. The law applies to clergy from all religions, but Ferguson pointed out that as a Catholic, he sees no issue with the legislation.

But not all Catholics agree. David DeWolf is a visiting law professor at St. Thomas University.

DEWOLF: Child abusers don't come to the confessional to confess that and and to that extent, it's it's more a way of taking sides in a in a state versus church issue, which goes back a long, long way

DeWolf says the law still shields lawyers from revealing child abuse mentioned in confidential conversations with their clients. He says that ensures the clients get a fair trial, and it should apply for truly repentant child abusers who want to make right with God.

DEWOLF: The theory of both the attorney client privilege and of the priest penitent privilege is, the society benefits, in the long run, from maintaining this avenue for people to come in, out of the cold and find someone who will listen to their story…

Last month, the U.S. Department of Justice announced it was opening a civil rights investigation into the law, saying it may run afoul of the First Amendment’s free exercise of religion. And on May 29th, a group of Catholic priests announced they were suing the state. A bishop in Spokane issued a statement saying he would rather go to jail than obey.

Josh Mercer, vice president of the advocacy group CatholicVote, says taking away the complete privacy of confession will deter people from coming.

MERCER: Catholics know right now, they can go to a priest and they can say anything. If that priest had to turn around and said, Oh, by the way, I'm going to go tell the sheriff you just did that, then, well, why would you confess those sins? You would keep tight lipped.

Catholics believe that the Sacrament of Reconciliation through a priest’s absolution is one way for them to receive God's forgiveness. If they can’t confess grave sins, they might not be able to get total forgiveness from God. And that, Mercer says, could have eternal consequences for a man’s soul.

But some Christians argue that confession doesn’t need to be shrouded in absolute secrecy.

VIETH: The Bible is fully inspired, then we have to ask ourselves, why did God inspire the writers to record in some detail the rape of Tamar, the rape of Dinah, the sexual exploitation of Bathsheba, and so on and so forth.

Victor Vieth is a Lutheran, and director of the Center for Faith and Child Protection at the Zero Abuse Project. Catholics and Protestants may interpret the Bible differently, but Vieth believes scripture is pretty clear about the need to protect people from abuse.

VIETH: Obviously, God must have wanted us to learn something from these stories of trauma and to learn what can happen if we don't respond appropriately.

Even if child abuse is not reported to local authorities, Vieth says all Christians are accountable to a greater authority.

VIETH: Ultimately, though, each Christian has to ask, How will I defend myself before Jesus one day, if I truly did take a confession from somebody who's a pedophile, a Jerry Sandusky sort of person, and we have reason to believe they're going to continue to molest, even though they may promise otherwise, and we fail to make a report? How does that conversation go with Jesus one day?

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Juliana Chan Erikson.

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