I am Catholic. I am disgusted at how the church hierarchy has handled sexual child abuse in the past. The church now has its own mandatory reporting protocol, and I favor mandatory reporting for everyone as a general rule. However, the issue of privilege is complex. Washington has a clergy penitent privilege, a spousal communication privilege, an attorney client privilege, and a doctor patient privilege. If a sexual child abuser sees a psychiatrist for help, should the psychiatrist be required to report communications made in the course of treatment? If so, no one will be seeking help. The clergy penitent privilege normally requires the communication to be made in the course of a formal confession recognized as a religious practice, and not a casual conversation. In the Catholic Church confession is a formal ritualized sacrament in which the priest may not reveal the communication to anyone. The penitent is anonymous at their discretion. I doubt that priests will be reporting such communications regardless of the law due to inability and obligation of confidentiality. And in most cases, they won’t even know who is making the statement given the anonymous nature of confession. So elimination of the privilege will, at most, discourage abusers from talking about their compulsion. I don’t see a net benefit in eliminating the privilege. Moreover, what about the other privileges? Lawyers reporting on their clients? Psychiatrists? I think the complexities of the issue are lost in the offhand derogatory comments about the Catholic Church. Of course, no privilege exists if the reports are made by third parties such as parents or pediatricians, or victims. Please note that I am as pissed as anyone about how stupidly and wrongly the church hierarchy handled reports as everyone else making comments. It would take me 10 pages to discuss the failures of the church. But the comments, in general, are superficial and the article is not accurate. This issue deserves better reporting.

TL,DR: In the Catholic Church confession is anonymous. But we can make lawyers report on their clients.