SPOKANE, Wash. — New court filings show several Orthodox churches and a priest are suing the state of Washington and Governor Bob Ferguson over a newly implemented law that requires clergy to report suspected child abuse.
The plaintiffs include Orthodox Church in America, Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese of North America, Romanian Orthodox Metropolia of the Americas, Western American Diocese of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia, and Timothy Wilkinson.
They join Catholic bishops who have already sued the state.
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In the suit, the churches argue the law violates their religious freedom.
In Orthodox Christianity, confessions made to a priest are confidential, and those priests are not permitted to repeat what they’re told in confession.
The new Washington law makes it a crime for clergy not to report child abuse, including during confession.
The churches agree that abuse should be reported, but only outside of confession.
The argument is that forcing priests to break the seal of confession violates the First Amendment (freedom of religion) and Fourteenth Amendment (equal protection) of the U.S. Constitution.
These organizations want the state to declare the clergy-confession requirement unconstitutional, block enforcement of the new law, and protect the confidentiality of religious confession as legally recognized.
The new law is scheduled to take effect next month.
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