OPINION:
The recent decision in Etienne v. Ferguson spares Catholic priests in Washington state from a terrible choice: go to jail or betray their most sacred duty as confessors and risk excommunication.
That was the impossible bind created by legislation signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, which was set to go into effect Sunday. The law would have forced priests to break the seal of confession or face criminal penalties. Thankfully, the court decision temporarily blocked the law while the case continues, preventing it from doing any real damage to priests, religious freedom and the very idea of constitutional governance in America.
The judge’s ruling is a victory for religious liberty, and it’s a blessing in disguise for Mr. Ferguson and the politicians in Olympia who backed this unconstitutional power grab. By blocking this reckless and discriminatory law, the court spared them from inflicting lasting damage on our civic life.
The law would have forced priests to face jail time unless they exposed the sins of penitents and broke the sacred seal of confession. Had the law gone into effect, it would have put priests in jail for up to 364 days and fined them $5,000 for doing what their religion required upon pain of excommunication: maintaining the confidentiality and sacredness of the sacrament of confession.
What the law required was not simply burdensome or misguided; it was impossible. The seal of confession is absolute in Catholic doctrine. A priest may never reveal what is said in confession, under any circumstances, not even to save his own life or freedom. To do so is to incur automatic excommunication. That’s not negotiable, it’s not flexible, and it’s not open to reinterpretation by political actors with no understanding of sacramental theology.
Had this law gone into effect, it would have produced exactly one outcome: priests going to jail rather than violate their faith. Mr. Ferguson and his allies would have won headlines, but not the ones they hoped for.
The law singled out priests by egregiously overlooking the fact that lawyers and other professionals must maintain confidentiality when they are made privy to acts of abuse. The state’s expectation that priests follow a protocol not applied to other professions reveals a questionable motive about the law: Was this about protection of children or grandstanding against Catholics?
The demand for priests to report abuse was not only discriminatory but also redundant. In the Archdiocese of Seattle and the Dioceses of Yakima and Spokane, all church personnel in schools, parishes and other ministries are already required to report suspected abuse to law enforcement.
The climate in which Mr. Ferguson thought it wise to criminalize a sacred rite of the church also raises questions about the law’s practice of singling out Catholic priests.
In recent years, we have seen the federal government label Catholics potential domestic threats, give the FBI sweeping permission to spy on Catholics in their churches, pro-life activists arrested at gunpoint and more than 500 acts of vandalism or arson against Catholic churches and institutions, including Masses interrupted, tabernacles stolen and statues of Our Lady defaced.
Religious liberty is not a bargaining chip to be traded for political points. It is a cornerstone of our republic. Catholic priests, like all other Americans, are entitled to the full protection of the Constitution, even when their beliefs are inconvenient to the ambitions of state officials.
Unfortunately, the fight to protect religious freedom in Washington is not over. This month’s ruling was a critical first step toward blocking Mr. Ferguson’s unconstitutional power grab, but more work remains.
As the case proceeds, let this month’s ruling serve as a line in the sand. Politicians do not get to redefine sacraments, and they certainly don’t get to coerce clergy into violating them. The federal court did more than block a law; it restored a measure of sanity and spared Washington’s political class from a grotesque historical misstep.
Mr. Ferguson should learn from this month’s decision and back down from his crusade to criminalize the Catholic priesthood.
• Kelsey Reinhardt is the president and CEO of CatholicVote.
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