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7 days agoThere’s a great Hitchcock movie about murder and confession and a priest who cannot protect his own name because of the seal of the confessional. I highly recommend watching:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Confess_(film)
The seal of the confessional is so strict that if a man confessed putting poison in the communion wine before Mass, after leaving the confessional the priest could not act on that information, even if it meant drinking the wine at Mass and dying.
More specifically, Washington State (and most other states) have mandated reporter laws regarding child abuse. If your profession is on the list, you are a mandated reporter. Construction workers are an example of people not mandated reporters. If they suspect abuse they should say something but aren’t legally mandated. Teachers, nurses, and clergy are examples of mandated reporters. They have to say something. The carve out is if the priest learns the information during a sacramental confession. Outside of the confessional, he still reports. But because people stop going to confession when priests don’t have the seal of the confessional, churches maintain that requirement. Child abusers aren’t going to confess to someone who will report that confession to the government so it isn’t like this law was going to stop any abuse. In fact, more abuse might happen when perverts have no one to turn to when they need someone to deal with their messed up psychology.