'Delaware and Vermont legislators are debating bills that would do away with what is called the 'seal of confession,' a teaching of the Catholic Church that forbids priests from divulging what is heard during confession,' MattLamb22 writes.
This threat to religious liberty should be concerning regardless if someone disagrees with what the Catholic Church teaches about the sacrament.“This Act abrogates the privilege between priest and penitent in a sacramental confession relating to child abuse and neglect,” Delaware House Bill 74. “It requires priests to report child abuse and neglect or to give or accept evidence in a judicial proceeding relating to child abuse or neglect.
Vermont’s version avoids any language that would protect a priest’s duty to keep private information heard in a confessional. Senate Bill 16exceptions for information “made to a member of the clergy acting in his or her capacity as spiritual advisor,” “intended by parties to be confidential,” “intended by the communicant to be an act of contrition or a matter of conscience,” and “required to be confidential by religious law, doctrine or tenet.
While it is not clear if anti-Catholic animus is behind this legislation, it is also unclear what this bill would accomplish besides targeting Catholic priests for further questioning and forcing them to choose between going to jail or breaking a sacred promise they made never to divulge what is said in confession. A priest who shares what someone told him in confession is automatically excommunicated, forbidden from accessing the other sacraments.
“The sacrament of confession and its seal of confession is a fundamental aspect of the Church’s sacramental theology and practice,” the Diocese of Wilmington.” “It is nonnegotiable. ... It would be a clear violation of the First Amendment for the government to interfere in this most sacred and ancient practice of our faith.”
A Catholic bishop in Vermont expressed similar concerns about his state’s proposed bill. Bishop Christopher Coyne testified that the state’s legislation “crosses a constitutionally protected element of our religious faith: The right to worship as we see fit,” according to
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