The Clergy Accountability Coalition Seeks to Correct the Record Regarding Senate Bill 5375
OLYMPIA, Wash., May 13, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Supporters of Washington’s new mandated clergy reporting law were still celebrating Governor Ferguson signing it into law when only days later they learned that the DOJ was opening an investigation characterizing the bill as “anti-Catholic.” When SB 5375 takes effect on July 27, 2025, all members of the clergy will be required to report credible knowledge of child abuse and neglect – no matter how the information is learned. In the DOJ’s Press Release, Asst. A. G. Harmeet K. Dhillon of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division stated, “Worse, the law appears to single out clergy as not entitled to assert applicable privileges, as compared to other reporting professionals.” “5375 does not specify other mandatory reporters because state statute already removes privileged communications for them when the knowledge pertains to child abuse or neglect,” said Sharon Huling, a representative for the coalition and co-founder of the Catholic Accountability Project (CAP). “Even parents can be compelled to testify against a spouse when it involves the safety and security of their child,” she added.
Washington law still provides clergy with the privilege to not be required to testify in court, regarding what they have learned and 5375 applies to clergy of all faiths – it does not single out Catholic priests. In passing SB 5375, Washington joins New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Guam, Texas, West Virginia, North Carolina and Oklahoma in eliminating an exemption for what is learned in confession when it involves the crime of child abuse or neglect. The CAC is not aware that this has been found unconstitutional in any of these other states. Both state and the federal constitutions place limitations on religious practices when they are inconsistent with the peace and safety of the state, when the practice runs afoul of ‘public morals’ or a compelling government interest or when it involves licentiousness.
“The journey to pass a mandated clergy reporting bill began three years ago after Senator Noel Frame, herself a victim of child abuse, read an article in Investigate West that exposed how Jehovah Witnesses use secretive, internal trials to investigate abuse,” said Marino Hardin, a whistleblower in the Investigate West article and coalition member. “Providing an exemption for confessions would allow any religious group to mandate secrecy and conceal abuse.”
Mary Dispenza, a former nun, co-founder of Survivors Against Abuse by Priests, coalition and CAP member, told her story to lawmakers. “I was raped by the parish priest when I was seven and I buried it. At 18, as a young nun, I finally told my confessor about the rape naming my abuser, whom he knew. He did nothing and the pedophile priest went on to abuse 40 more children in Los Angeles. The Catholic seal of confession did not protect me.” Dispenza added, “If a child like me confesses to a priest that they are being abused, that child is not the sinner, they are crying out for help and protection. Child abuse cannot be stopped if it is not known. I just cannot understand why any religious person would not protect an innocent child.”
In a heated debate on the floor of the House, Rep. Debra Lekanoff, spoke up on behalf of countless Native American children harmed in religious and government boarding schools across the state. Rep. Lekanoff, a Native American, testified to the bill’s importance in protecting children, “…for holding those people who we trusted [accountable] …who took our children, who stole our children…only to find out that [our children] were abused. Only to find out that the silence was used, this sacred trust, to harm the children…The silence of clergymen has not healed (of bearing those secrets), have not healed the people who look like me…because no one stood up and protected the children who needed it the most.” A.J. Dotzauer-Rashid and Charles Adkins from the Tulalip Tribes of WA and a representative from the Puyallup Tribe Children’s Advocacy Center also supported the bill.
This is an opportunity for all religious organizations that have used existing loopholes in the law to reexamine the harm caused to children by their policies rather than fight this positive change. The Pew Institute Center has reported that 27% of Christians cited ongoing sex-abuse scandals as the reason they have left the faith. Let’s give them a reason to return. For the Catholic Church, Pope Leo can update Canon Law regarding the seal of confession, if he chooses to do so. “Good priests do not need to be excommunicated for reporting child sex abuse to authorities,” said Tim Law, a co-founder of Ending Clergy Abuse, member of the coalition and CAP. ECA Global is an international organization advocating for a universal zero-tolerance law in the Church in regards to child sex abuse. “Confession of serious sins was public in in the early Church until the 13th Century when it was made private, in part due to sex scandals involving priests, he adding, “Children as young as seven were only mandated to go to confession as recently as 100 years ago by Pope Pius X.” Mitch Melin, an ex-JW and coalition member said that with the passage of 5375, “Jehovah Witness Elders will now report knowledge of child abuse to authorities because Elders are required to comply with the law.”
Washington State citizens have made it clear; they will no longer tolerate child sex abuse and its cover-up – the safety of our children is paramount. The CAC is composed of a broad and diverse group of hundreds of individuals and organizations, it includes atheists, agnostics, and people from many faiths. Religious organizations must be held accountable to societal standards. Washington’s new mandatory clergy reporting law is a step towards justice. It will be the job of A.G. Brown to defend it to the DOJ. All children, including children in religious households deserve equal protection under the law. We hope the DOJ agrees.
For more information contact:
Sharon Valdés Huling
206-949-2006
[email protected]
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SOURCE Clergy Accountability Coalition
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