In our latest installment of “somehow this is actually happening,” Trump’s DOJ announced this week—with no apparent sense of irony or shame—that it will investigate whether a new Washington state law requiring clergy to report child sex abuse allegations is anti-Catholic.
Let’s go over that again. The Department of Justice (really struggling with not putting “justice” in scare-quotes here) claims that making clergy report child sex abuse is an attack on Catholicism and the Catholic Church.
This Catholicism. This Catholic Church.
As the author of Abusing Religion, an entire book about religious sex abuse, and as a person who thinks sexually abusing children is bad, actually, I have no words. But as I’ve said before: our silences allow abuse to flourish. So we need to talk about this bill and the DOJ’s response.
Clergy as mandatory reporters
On May 2, Governor Bob Ferguson signed SB5375 into law, requiring clergy and other religious leaders to report all allegations of children being sexually abused, exploited, trafficked, mutilated, or otherwise injured to the Department of Children, Youth, and Families or to law enforcement. The bill amends Washington’s existing requirements, adding clergy to a list of mandatory reporters that includes educators, police officers, and medical professionals.
This requirement extends to all Washington clergy and in no way singles out Catholic priests. (Catholics are a statistical minority in the state; only 14% of Washingtonians are Catholic.) Ferguson claims that only four states exempt clergy from mandatory reporting requirements, but that appears to be incorrect. As of 2022, 28 states (and Guam) require clergy to report child sex abuse allegations. Pennsylvania and Massachusetts—both homes to large Catholic populations and massive clerical child sex abuse scandals—include clergy among mandatory reporters but carve out exceptions for allegations disclosed during confession.
To put this in the plainest possible terms: this means that in most states, if anyone admits to sexually abusing a child during the sacrament of Confession, the priest hearing that confession need not (and in some cases—looking at you, Massachusetts—must not) report that abuse. By contrast, clergy in Washington (as well as in New Hampshire, West Virginia, and Guam) must report such allegations without exception, though they can’t be required to testify about child abuse suspicions in court.
SB5375’s definition of clergy is deliberately expansive, including rabbis, imams, elders, ministers, “or similarly situated religious or spiritual leader of any church, religious denomination, religious body, spiritual community, or sect, or person performing official duties that are recognized as the duties of a member of the clergy under the discipline, tenets, doctrine, or custom of the person’s church, religious denomination, religious body, spiritual community, or sect.” For the purposes of this bill, “clergy” means pretty much anyone in a position of religious or spiritual authority.
But the DOJ, bless their hearts, calls this requirement anti-Catholic. In Monday’s press release, Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division—pause to let that one sink in—claims the bill “demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law.”
The press release insists that SB5375 singles out Catholic priests because the bill does not require other mandatory reporters in Washington to report abuse allegations disclosed in privileged communications. (The bill doesn’t require this because another Washington state statute strips public employees of “privileged communications” and mandates that they testify in court for cases dealing with child abuse.)
Governor Ferguson, himself a Catholic, disagrees. “Protecting our kids, first, is the most important thing,” Ferguson insists. “This bill protects Washingtonians from abuse and harm.” State Senator Noel Frame, who sponsored the bill, concurs: “You never put somebody’s conscience above the protection of a child.”
Child sexual abuse, free exercise, and the Sherbert Test
Seventy percent of all sexual assaults happen to children 17 or younger. (All statistics about child sex abuse are educated guesses; many, if not most, assaults go unreported.) Child sex abuse happens every hour of every day in every community in every state in this nation. Victims and their families almost always know the child’s assailant. And there is something particularly horrific, particularly predatory when that violence comes at the hands of a religious leader.
But our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion in ways that it does not protect children, and the DOJ is claiming SB5375 violates Catholic free exercise. It can make this claim in large part because Burwell v. Hobby Lobby (2014) codified protections for “sincerely held beliefs” (or, in AAG Dhillon’s words, “deeply held faith”). I’m trying really hard not to go into full autistic infodump mode here, so I’ll just say that Burwell reinstated the Sherbert Test for evaluating whether and how laws violate free exercise.
The Sherbert Test first looks into whether a law infringes upon an individual or community’s religious beliefs. Because Confession is a Catholic sacrament, and because clergy-penitent privilege is a core component of Catholic doctrine about that sacrament, SB5375 does arguably violate Washington Catholic clergy’s free exercise. But that’s not the end of the conversation.
The Sherbert Test’s next consideration is whether the federal government has a compelling interest in the law’s enforcement—if so, the law might remain enforceable even if it does violate free exercise. I personally would love to think that the safety, protection, and dignity of children is pretty freaking compelling. But then again, I don’t work for the federal government. The Sherbert Test further asks whether the law constitutes an undue burden on the individual or community in question, basically establishing whether there’s a less restrictive way to achieve the law’s intended result. But why would Catholic clergy want excuses not to report child sex abuse?
“Justice” for abusers, not kids
It’s fair to assume that we’ll see more of this sort of thing as the Justice Department continues to roll out its “anti-Christian bias” campaign. It’s also fair to assume that this gambit is meant to distract from Trump’s controversial declaration that he should be the next pope.
(Speaking only for myself, I think the Church should just let Trump be pope if it means he’ll resign the presidency. The Vatican does not, to the best of my knowledge, have nuclear capabilities, and the Church owes the whole world reparations. Plus, frankly? He’ll have plenty of like-minded company.)
This administration is infamous for saying the quiet parts out loud, so this is a moment of rare discretion for Team Sexual Assault. Since they won’t say it, I will. The DOJ is going to bat for Catholic clergy’s right to conceal and facilitate the sexual abuse and exploitation of children—a practice the Roman Catholic Church has engaged in for centuries all over the world, and one even the widely-beloved Pope Francis failed to adequately address.
This bill can only be anti-Catholic if you think Catholic clergy have the right to sexually prey on children and allow, even help, others to do likewise. I’ve said before, many times, many ways: abuse happens because we let it. It should come as no surprise that this administration is eager to find more ways to facilitate abuse while bolstering the false narrative of American Christian persecution.
Meanwhile, Gov. Ferguson remains stalwart in defense of this bill and of Washington’s children. “We look forward to protecting Washington kids from sexual abuse in the face of this ‘investigation’ from the Trump Administration,” Ferguson said.
