Washington Agrees Not to Enforce Law Forcing Priests to Break Confession Seal
Washington state officials have agreed to stop enforcing Senate Bill 5375, which would have required priests to report child abuse disclosed during confession. This decision was made after the Orthodox and Catholic churches sued the state, arguing that the law violated their First Amendment rights.
The June case is called Orthodox Church in America v. Ferguson.
Governor Bob Ferguson, a Democrat and "Catholic", signed the bill in May. The law made it a misdemeanour to keep abuse secret, carrying a penalty of up to one year in jail and a fine of up to $5,000.
However, under the new court order, Washington cannot force priests to reveal what they hear in confession. However, clergy must still report abuse that they learn about outside of confession.
Washington was targeting priests while protecting other forms of private communication, such as those with lawyers.
In July, a federal judge blocked the law. The new settlement makes that block permanent.
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The picture of the priest in the confessional is not catholic! a missing corpus on the cross, the sign of Jesus is ihs not hts, and we do not have a double cross on the stole. Perhaps Anglican?
Actually if you examine it carefully it's a FAKE A.I. generated image. One tip off I too spotted immediately is the odd rendering of the IHS symbol {monogram for Jesus] - it's missing the "I" and the cross should be centered.
Should never have been a "law" to begin with. And they were fooling NO ONE with the doge that it was to "protect children' that the same govt. that aborts babies and mutilates children wants to know YOUR SINS!!!