Bill to force priests to report abuse confessions pulled

A bill that would have required members of the clergy to report information to police that they received about child abuse and neglect during private confessions has been pulled by its author, state Sen. Jerry Hill, DSan Mateo.

The action came in the wake of an allout effort by California Catholics to derail the bill, SB360. In a letter read at every Mass in San Francisco and San Mateo counties on June 23, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone said, “For Catholics, confession is sacred, and the ability to confess our sins confidentially is essential to our religious belief and practice.” He urged parishioners to mail letters to Hill and other legislators.

Oakland Diocese Bishop Michael Barber was even more direct.

“Even if this bill passes, no priest may obey it,” he said in a May 27 letter to the diocese. “I will go to jail before I will obey this attack on our religious freedom.”

Similar letters were sent out by other bishops across the state, according to the California Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Roman Catholic Church in the state. An estimated 125,000 letters and emails in opposition were sent to legislators.

Under Catholic liturgical law, priests are not allowed to share any information they receive during private confession. The rule is shared by a variety of other religions, including the Lutheran, Episcopal, Orthodox and Mormon churches.

The “seal of the confessional” exemption has long been recognized in both federal and state law, according to a staff report filed Monday with the Assembly Committee on Public Safety, which was scheduled to hold what promised to be a raucous hearing on the bill Tuesday.

The report suggested that Hill’s bill could face constitutional issues and would be almost impossible to enforce.

The bill passed the state Senate on a 304 vote May 23, but Hill said he pulled it when he realized there were not enough votes to get the measure out of the Assembly committee.

The bill “had one purpose only, not to restrict faith, but to ensure the protection of the most vulnerable of the faithful: children,” Hill said in a statement.

His original bill would have required priests to report any admission of child neglect or abuse they heard “during penitential communications.” He later changed it to limit the required disclosure to confessions heard from other priests and clergy members and lay church workers.

“This issue remains important to me, and I will continue to champion it,” Hill said. “The bill is on pause — it has not been withdrawn.”