Washington state Senator Noel Frame has rejected the Catholic Church’s claim that it would have to excommunicate priests who comply with her new child abuse reporting law.

During an interview with NRP’s Dave Miller, she said: “There’s nothing to say they cannot change their rules.”

Newsweek contacted state Senator Frame and the Archdiocese of Seattle for comment via online inquiry form and email respectively on Friday outside of regular office hours.

Why It Matters

The debate highlights the tension that can exist between what religious groups claim are theological requirements and secular legislation.

Assistant Attorney General Harmeet K. Dhillon told the New York Post that the new law “demands that Catholic Priests violate their deeply held faith in order to obey the law, a violation of the Constitution and a breach of the free exercise of religion” showing the Trump administration is placing itself firmly on the side of religious authority.

What to Know

Washington state Governor Bob Ferguson this month signed into law SB 5375, which from July 27 will make it a legal requirement for Catholic priests to report any suspected child abuse or neglect they hear about during confession to the relevant authorities. Catholic clergy were previously exempt as according to church doctrine the content of confession can’t be shared without breaking Canon law.

The move sparked an angry response from Archbishop Paul Etienne of Seattle who said: “While we remain committed to protecting minors and all vulnerable people from abuse, priests cannot comply with this law if the knowledge of abuse is obtained during the Sacrament of Reconciliation.”

The Archdiocese of Seattle commented: “All Catholics must know and be assured that their confessions remain sacred, secure, confidential and protected by the law of the Church.”

Frame, one of the legislators who sponsored the bill, discussed this issue with NPR’s Miller on Wednesday. Herself a survivor of childhood sexual abuse, Frame said she learned clergy were not already mandatory reporters in Washington in response to an investigation into alleged abuse within “the Jehovah’s Witness community in Washington state.”

In response to Archbishop Etienne’s comments, Frame said: “We the state of Washington have a secular legislative purpose that is to protect children from abuse and neglect and if faith communities choose through their rules not to protect children from abuse and neglect, we the state are choosing not to be complicit in that choice by their rules.”

Frame continued: “I am reminded that Canon law has changed many times over the years in the Catholic faith and there’s nothing to say they cannot change their rules to allow the reporting of real time abuse and neglect of children. That is within their power to change and I think they should so.”

Canon law, the legal system governing the Catholic church, has been repeatedly modified over the years. For example, in 2015 Pope Francis streamlined the process for marriage annulments, while in 2021 he amended Canon law to allow women to be formally instituted as lectors and acolytes for the first time.

On May 8, senior figures within the Catholic Church elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost of Chicago as the next pope, the first American to hold the role. He chose the papal title of Pope Leo XIV.

What People Are Saying

During the interview Frame said: “So under our current mandatory reporting law that clergy will become apart of, they will have 48 hours to report suspected or known abuse or neglect of a child. They can call law enforcement or they can call that into our department of children, youth and families. People often hear of CPS, or Child Protective Services, they have to call that in within 48 hours so that our state agency or law enforcement can go check on that child and ensure that they are safe while they seek to substantiate whether or not abuse or neglect was happening.”

Addressing Newsweek, Professor Anthea Butler, chair of the department of Religious Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, commented: “This is about ‘the seal of the confessional’ That is, the rule that when a priest hears a confession, it cannot be shared. If it is shared, it’s breaking Canon Law. A priest can be excommunicated for breaking the seal of the confessional.

“The situation, which the Trump administration is looking at, is interesting because there has always been this collision between the law of the local, state and national level and some aspects of canon law. Think about this not only on this level, but in issues of other types of transgressions, like murder. Terrible situation, but the for the priest, they are subject to canon law.”

What’s Next

The Trump administration is likely to continue arguing SB 5375 violates legal protections to religious liberty, potentially setting the stage for the issue to be debated in court.