BREAKING: Montana State Senator to Amend Bill to Protect Priests' Seal of Confession
"Allow priests to hear confessions and not break their seal of confession if someone reports child abuse"
State Senator Mary Ann Dunwell (D-Helena) told The Montana Chronicles that she is bringing an amendment to her bill, Senate Bill (SB) 139, that will allow priests to hear confessions and not break their seal of confession if someone reports child abuse.
Initially, SB 139 wanted to amend Montana law to “eliminate clergy exemption in mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect.”
The bill changed Montana law to say priests and other professions “may not refuse to make a report as required … on the grounds of a physician-patient or similar privilege.”
Dunwell said Bishop of Helena Austin Vetter suggested this amendment to her.
The state senator told The Chronicles on Thursday that Vetter told her that “priests are mandatory reporters” of child abuse except when in a confessional.
Montana law requires priests to be mandatory reporters of child abuse “in their professional or occupational capacity.” However, Montana allows priests not to make a report when “the knowledge or suspicion of the abuse or neglect came from a statement or confession made to the member of the clergy or the priest in that person’s capacity as a member of the clergy or as a priest.”
According to Catholic Cannon Law, priests can not reveal anything said to them during confession. If a priest breaks the seal of confession, the Catholic Church excommunicates the priest.
Confession, also known as Reconciliation, is one of the seven sacraments in the Catholic Church.
The first American legal recognition of the “priest-penitent privilege” was People v. Philips in 1813. The New York Court of Sessions heard this case.
“It is essential to the free exercise of a religion, that its ordinances should be administered— that its ceremonies as well as its essentials should be protected. The sacraments of a religion are its most important elements,” the court wrote.
According to churchlawandtax.com, priest-penitent privilege “means that neither the minister nor the ‘penitent’ can be forced to testify in court (or in a deposition or certain other legal proceedings) about the contents of the communication.”
This privilege applies to all religious faiths.
Twenty-four states in America recognize the “priest-penitent privilege” but also require clergy members to be mandatory reporters.
Another 10 states “implicitly include clergy as mandatory reporters” but also recognize the “priest-penitent privilege,” according to Ave Maria Law.
The Catholic League wrote a letter on Thursday, January 23, to Governor Greg Gianforte and the Montana Catholic bishops asking that SB 139 be “withdrawn immediately.”
“The First Amendment explicitly guarantees religious liberty, and that means that confidential comments made to priests in the Sacrament of Reconciliation can never be divulged,” the letter says. “Just as journalists, lawyers, and psychiatrists cannot do their job if what they learn in confidence is subject to public disclosure, the same is true of Catholic priests in the confessional.”
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Zachery Schmidt is the founder of The Montana Chronicles. If you have any tips, please send them to montanachronicles@proton.me.