Church under attack: How Democrats just declared war on Christians

The state of Washington has declared war on the Catholic Church, and it could cost Americans their free exercise of religion — all under the guise of “helping children.”

Washington State Senate Bill 5375, passed earlier this month in that state’s ongoing crusade against what it claims is “abuse,” would force Catholic priests who hear admissions of abuse within the context of the sacrament of confession to break the seal of the sacrament and report those admissions to the state, even though all other recognized privileges — like those between doctor and patient and lawyer and client — are preserved.

What happens to Catholics today may affect many more Americans tomorrow.

The practice of confession isn’t just “therapy for Catholics”: It's a sacrament where we believe God extends His forgiveness for our sins, which we must lay out to a priest, Christ's representative on earth. It’s a ritual: You list your sins in conversation with a priest, often anonymously or from behind a screen, and in return, the priest assigns a penance and grants absolution.

It’s also a ritual critical to the spiritual life of Catholics. Without forgiveness and absolution, Catholics who die in a state of sin could go straight to hell, and Catholics who live in a state of mortal sin are barred from communion, which is the heart of our faith.

Our very souls depend on it. It’s not some optional counseling; it’s a critical practice of Catholicism.

Washington is not alone in trying to compel priests to tell law enforcement what’s said in the confessional, but it’s the state that’s gotten the furthest. It’s also certainly the first state to bring the issue of repeating confessions to the public in a way that gives regular Americans a glimpse into how the Catholic religion works.

Even right-leaning media has gotten the issue wrong: Shortly after the bill was passed, Fox News and others announced that the Catholic Church had threatened to excommunicate any priest who complied with the law and spilled secrets to cops, almost as if the battle over the seal of confession was a war between the state and the Church.

In reality, it's a war on the Catholic Church.

Priests and religious workers, especially those who work around children, are already mandated to report abuse if they can identify it everywhere other than in the confessional, and the Church has taken significant steps to address issues of clergy abuse in its past, including involving law enforcement right from the moment of discovery, rather than handling it through church administration.

The problem, while an embarrassment for the Catholic Church, is also one of the past. Recent reports show that incidents of abuse peaked in the 1970s and 1980s and dropped off significantly after 1989.

The Catholic Church is now on notice and has the data to prove it.

But Washington wants to continue to subject the Catholic Church to punishment for past sins in a way it does not subject any other organization. Washington also wants to intercede in only the penitent privilege. The bill specifically demands clergy report abuse to law enforcement but takes pains to note that no other privileged communication is affected: Lawyers do not need to report crimes confessed in their conference rooms, nor do therapists nor doctors nor members of other occupations where privilege applies.

Nope, in the bill's own words, “Except for members of the clergy, no one shall be required to report under this section when he or she obtains the information solely as a result of a privileged communication.”

Priests who are found to be uncompliant could face a year in jail or thousands of dollars in fines.

And as the local diocese has already said, in a statement made directly to legislators, it simply won’t comply. And priests who do comply would face excommunication, not because of a threat from the bishops, but because the issue of confessional confidentiality is covered right there in the Church’s own catechism.

• Canon 983: The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore, it is a crime for a confessor in any way to betray a penitent by word or in any other manner or for any reason.
• Canon 1386: A confessor who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae [automatic] excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offense.

This isn’t a matter of the bishops facing down the state of Washington and threatening priests with excommunication if they comply with the law; it’s the bishops letting the state of Washington know: Priests would rather serve jail time than be excommunicated from the Catholic Church.

The left has engaged in this type of intimidation before in the name of “saving” children from sure violence, but it all has the same intent: bullying the religious institutions that keep our community healthy and help individuals and families loosen their reliance on the state and bullying those with sincere and orthodox beliefs at odds with the left’s agenda.

Washington is just one front in a large and aggressive war on the rights of Americans to exercise their freedom of belief.

Luckily, the Trump administration does not appear to be taking Washington’s threat to religious liberty lightly. In a statement issued May 5, it vowed to fight the Washington law on the grounds that it violates the First Amendment’s right to free exercise since it infringes on a core, sincerely held religious dogma.

President Trump has also welcomed several members of the Catholic clergy onto a council that will seek to protect religious liberty — because what happens to Catholics today may affect many more Americans tomorrow.