The Trump administration has launched an investigation into the law, calling it "anti-Catholic." The bishops say it would force them to break their oaths.
as opposed to doctors, lawyers, or other professionals who are protected from this duty of having to report on past crimes under penalty of law
Except doctors in Washington state are all already mandatory reporters, this just makes priests part of a group that already includes doctors. The article explicitly mentions this.
It would have taken you two seconds to look that up even if you had not read the article.
This is literally bishops saying that reporting sexual assault violates their civil rights. Hiding behind the sanctity of the “seal of the confessional” (As they shuffleremoveds priests around to avoid them being prosecuted)
Yeah, healthcare professionals like doctors do have the duty to report in Washington State, my bad. I was contorting the example of a therapist who would have the privilege not to report on a crime a patient mentions during therapy, I mistakenly generalized it.
And I definitely think you’re right about the intentions of the bishops. Really, it goes deeper than that. They are terrified of the state actually exercising the supervision and diligence that is appropriate to handle the Church’s CSA problem. I think cracking down on confessions is not going to be a productive way to actually get the child abusers arrested, so if I’m being a bit cynical I think it’s possible that the Democrats are doing what they always do: a misguided policy solution that attracts a lot of controversy but doesn’t tackle the root cause of the problem they claim to try to be solving.
I don’t know if this is a good solution to the church’s sexual abuse situation. But I think its important to be right about the facts when talking about what actions are to be taken during child sexual assault.
Except doctors in Washington state are all already mandatory reporters, this just makes priests part of a group that already includes doctors. The article explicitly mentions this. It would have taken you two seconds to look that up even if you had not read the article. This is literally bishops saying that reporting sexual assault violates their civil rights. Hiding behind the sanctity of the “seal of the confessional” (As they shuffleremoveds priests around to avoid them being prosecuted)
Yeah, healthcare professionals like doctors do have the duty to report in Washington State, my bad. I was contorting the example of a therapist who would have the privilege not to report on a crime a patient mentions during therapy, I mistakenly generalized it.
And I definitely think you’re right about the intentions of the bishops. Really, it goes deeper than that. They are terrified of the state actually exercising the supervision and diligence that is appropriate to handle the Church’s CSA problem. I think cracking down on confessions is not going to be a productive way to actually get the child abusers arrested, so if I’m being a bit cynical I think it’s possible that the Democrats are doing what they always do: a misguided policy solution that attracts a lot of controversy but doesn’t tackle the root cause of the problem they claim to try to be solving.
Here is a list of mandatory reporters in Washington state.
https://www.dshs.wa.gov/altsa/home-and-community-services/mandatory-and-permissive-reporters
I don’t know if this is a good solution to the church’s sexual abuse situation. But I think its important to be right about the facts when talking about what actions are to be taken during child sexual assault.