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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?
We also need a law that requires news sources to provide links to law(s) being discussed in their articles!
Priest: I’d like to report child abuse because that’s the law. Church: You’re out! Go to hell, dickbag.
We'll kick you out of our kiddy diddler club
Is quite the threat
To be fair and if we consider Catholic lore and dogma technically any kind of breach of the confessional seal is a major breach in Catholic law or whatever. So I understand this from a faith based perspective.
On the other hand, I'm an atheist so fuck the confessional seal and report major crimes. Especially fucking child abuse! Any kind of child abuse!
Excommunicated vs Imprisoned. The choice is yours.
Imprisoned for what? I can't see how any jury could ever convict someone "beyond a reasonable doubt" or what not on someone saying something. Most prosecutors would likely say you'd need more evidence to even start building a case. Now if the person went to the police and reported being sexually assaulted and then the priest came forward it might go somewhere, but even then it may not go anywhere if there wasn't evidence. They have to prove someone performed an illegal act, which someone's word counts for shit. We could get 1,000,000 people to say pdiddy raped Selina Gomez, but without any other evidence, it shouldn't go anywhere with the way our justice system is set up.
Public Defender: "were you there?" Priest: "No"
requiring the reporting of child abuse confessions to authorities
So they aren't blatantly evil at least. Confessions remaining private is the foundation of how they work. Either way, the church loses on this one.
The Catholic church is hardly going to allow priests to be forced to go to the police and admit crimes.
It's funny, the post above this one on my feed is a bunch of people crowing about how yoid have to be a "tankie" to not support the new head of this organization.
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.
It means the law works.
If they truly believe in their faith, then they will serve their sentences faithfully, as a show if their devotion to their god.
Protecting child abuse should have a cost regardless of the motivation.