WA lawmaker defends bill making priests mandated reporters: I can't "make a compromise for you anymore"

Sen. Noel Frame has once again sponsored a bill requiring priests to report confessions of abuse

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I mentioned earlier this week that Montana lawmakers were considering a bill that would require clergy members to report child abuse to law enforcement authorities if they happen to learn about it through the act of confession.

The same thing is now happening in Washington, where similar attempts have failed in recent years. Maybe third time’s a charm.

In short, SB 5375 (and companion bill HB 1211) would add “member of the clergy” to the list of mandated reporters in the state, which is not all that unusual. What makes this bill unique is that it specifically says clergy members would not be protected by the current law which allows certain private communications to remain private. In other words, even if you learn about abuse through confession, you can’t just hide behind that shield. You would still have to report the abuse to authorities.

In the past, when Democratic Sen. Noel Frame filed versions of this bill, she had to compromise and include a carveout for “penitential communication.” For example, a version she sponsored last year said that if a priest suspected abuse, only to have it confirmed through confession, they would still have to report it to authorities… but if they learned about the abuse “solely” through confession, they could just sit on the information and let the child suffer more.

Washington State Sen. Noel Frame (screenshot via TVW)

That bill died, ironically, after the state’s attorney general announced that three separate dioceses were being investigated for sex abuse by clergy members. Several lawmakers from both parties said they no longer wanted any exemptions for priests, but they ran out of time to pass anything that had enough support.

So Frame is now attempting to pass a no-compromise version of the bill.

She explained her thinking in an emotional hearing on Tuesday:

… I will say that the bill fell apart last year after the Revelation that the Catholic— three separate Archdioceses [sic] of the Catholic—Church were being investigated, which was not able to be corroborated until after legislative session last year, but that became public.

And quite frankly, it made it hard for me at a personal level to stomach any argument about religious freedom being more important than preventing the abuse, including the sexual abuse, of children.

Because everybody that's been following this bill knows that this one is personal for me, as a survivor of sexual abuse myself— an abuse that only stopped when I told a mandated reporter, which was a teacher.

So I have tried really hard over the last couple of years to find a balance and to strike a careful compromise, and I'm just here to say, for those who I tried to work with, I'm really sorry that I don't feel like I can make a compromise for you anymore, and I stand by the bill with no exemption.

That’s the sort of courage we need from lawmakers when dealing with predatory cover-ups by religious leaders. You can’t compromise with people who would eagerly throw abuse victims under the bus if their mythology demanded it. Furthermore, there’s no way to exempt confession from mandated reporting when confession itself is the problem here. It gives sexual predators a way to shed some of their guilt without interfering with their actions. They don’t deserve that kind of safe space to spill their guts without penalty.

Sharon Huling with the Clergy Accountability Coalition also testified at the hearing, pointing out the irony of how the Church will “excommunicate a good priest if he reports child sexual abuse learned of in confession” even though they rarely take action against priests who are predators themselves. She also reiterated that confession would still be protected for everyone else: “The only people who have to worry about the privacy of their confession are child rapists and abusers.”

One of the only voices arguing against the no-compromise bill was Bishop Frank Schuster of the Archdiocese of Seattle, who said, predictably, that it would be “impossible for a priest to comply with this bill” because “the penalty for breaking that seal [of confession] is excommunication.”

As I said before, though, that’s the sort of comment that deserves to be ridiculed and condemned. In no rational world is getting excommunicated more damning than letting a child continue to suffer sexual abuse. If you would rather protect priests than kids, then your organization should just admit the safety of children isn’t a top priority for them.

Schuster added in his comments that there was a clear way to fix this problem: When hearing this kind of confession, priests could just “tell offenders to turn themselves in.” (That suggestion is as comical as thinking Pete Hegseth will just stop drinking after his promotion.) Schuster then suggested working on a compromise—the same compromise that has failed so many times before.

I really appreciated the testimony from Kristiana de Leon, a board member of the Association of Secular Elected Officials, whose brief but effective statement pointed out that a lot of the conversation over this bill centered around rites but not rights “as in human rights or the First Amendment rights of the people who are in these churches who deserve to be kept safe.”

She’s right. It’s long past time the rights of individuals came before the rites of religious leaders.

The Seattle Times notes that mandated reporters are required by law to “report suspicions of abuse within 48 hours.” If they don’t, the subsequent misdemeanor charge could land them a year-long prison sentence on top of a $5,000 fine.

Five other Democrats are co-sponsoring this bill: Sens. Claire Wilson, Jessica Bateman, T'wina Nobles, Manka Dhingra, and Javier Valdez. If it were to pass, it would go into effect beginning July 26.

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