Justice Department sues Washington state over law forcing priests to break confession seal

Purple stole and confessional. / Credit: Roman023_photography/Shutterstock

CNA Staff, Jun 23, 2025 / 17:13 pm (CNA).

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington over its recent law mandating that priests must violate the seal of confession if child abuse is learned about during the sacrament of reconciliation.

The DOJ in a press release announcing the lawsuit filed on June 23 said the Washington law “violates the free exercise of religion for all Catholics.”

“The seal of confidentiality is … the lifeblood of confession. Without it, the free exercise of the Catholic religion, i.e., the apostolic duties performed by the Catholic priest to the benefit of Catholic parishioners, cannot take place,” the DOJ wrote in the brief.

On May 3, Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson signed into law Senate Bill 5375, which goes into effect July 27 and requires priests to disclose child abuse they learn about in confession. However, it exempts other professionals such as nurses and therapists from mandatory disclosure.

Priests who fail to report abuse learned in confession could face up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine. Ferguson, a Catholic, defended the measure in May, saying he is “very familiar” with confession but deemed the law “important legislation” to protect children.

In a May 5 letter to Ferguson, the assistant attorney general of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, Harmeet Dhillon, informed him that the DOJ would be investigating the newly passed law and required the state to preserve all records and communications related to the bill. 

Dhillon characterized the new law as a “legislative attack on the Catholic Church and its sacrament of confession, a religious practice ordained by the Catholic Church dating back to the Church’s origins.”

The bishops of the Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Spokane and Yakima filed a lawsuit May 29 challenging the law, arguing that it violates the free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment by infringing on the sacred seal of confession. The suit also claims the law violates the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment as well as the Washington Constitution.

In the bishops’ lawsuit, filed in federal district court, they emphasized the Catholic Church’s commitment to child protection while defending the inviolability of the confessional seal. 

“Consistent with the Roman Catholic Church’s efforts to eradicate the societal scourge of child abuse, the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Seattle and the dioceses of Yakima and Spokane have each adopted and implemented within their respective dioceses policies that go further in the protection of children than the current requirements of Washington law on reporting child abuse and neglect,” their lawsuit stated. 

It noted that these policies mandate reporting suspected abuse by Church personnel, including clergy, except when information is learned solely in confession, which is protected by “more than 2,000 years of Church doctrine.”

Spokane Bishop Thomas Daly in a statement in May vowed that clergy would not break the seal of confession, even if it meant jail time. “I want to assure you that your shepherds, bishops, and priests are committed to keeping the seal of confession — even to the point of going to jail,” Daly said in his message to the faithful. “The sacrament of penance is sacred and will remain that way in the Diocese of Spokane.”

Seattle Archbishop Paul D. Etienne echoed this stance, citing canon law, which forbids priests from betraying a penitent’s confession under penalty of excommunication. Etienne referenced St. Peter’s words in Acts 5:29 — “We must obey God rather than men.”

Leaders of various Orthodox churches joined Washington’s Catholic bishops in their own lawsuit against the state, saying in the lawsuit filed June 16 that Orthodox priests, like Catholic ones, “have a strict religious duty to maintain the absolute confidentiality” of information disclosed in confession. 

Their suit continued: “Violating this mandatory religious obligation is a canonical crime and a grave sin, with severe consequences for the offending priest, including removal from the priesthood.”