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+--- Thread: Montana bill would jail priests for 5 years if they refuse to violate seal of confession (/showthread.php?tid=6808)
Montana bill would jail priests for 5 years if they refuse to violate seal of confession - Stone - 01-23-2025
Montana bill would jail priests for 5 years if they refuse to violate seal of confession
A bill proposed by Montana Democrats would jail Catholic priests for upholding the confessional seal, to which they are bound by Canon Law.
A bill proposed by Montana Democrats would jail Catholic priests for upholding the confessional seal, to which they are bound by Canon Law.
Catholic League criticized the bill as ‘an egregious violation of the First Amendment.’
![[Image: confessional.jpg]](https://www.lifesitenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/confessional.jpg)
Walter Bibikow / Getty Images
Walter Bibikow / Getty Images
Jan 22, 2025
(LifeSiteNews) — A pending bill in Montana threatens Catholic priests with five years in jail and thousands of dollars in fines unless they commit the excommunicable offense of violating the seal of confession.
Senate Bill 139 would remove the mandatory reporter exemption for priests to report abuse. This would put priests in the position of either being excommunicated or being jailed or fined.
Canon 1386 states: “A confessor [priest] who directly violates the sacramental seal incurs a latae sententiae excommunication reserved to the Apostolic See; he who does so only indirectly is to be punished according to the gravity of the offence.”
Canon 983 states: “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason.”
Similarly, Canon 984 states: “A confessor is prohibited completely from using knowledge acquired from confession to the detriment of the penitent even when any danger of revelation is excluded.”
Neither of the two supporters of the bill reached for comment by LifeSiteNews had an answer for the religious freedom issues posed by the bill.
“I was a Catholic,” Sen. Mary Ann Dunwell, the bill’s chief sponsor, told LifeSiteNews during a phone interview Tuesday. Dunwell said she stopped practicing the faith five years ago but is familiar with confession. She also mentioned she “went to Catholic school” as part of her response to a question about if she had spoken to the Montana Catholic Conference or other Church leaders about the bill.
“I have spoken to various faith communities” and “members of the Catholic clergy” across the country,” Dunwell stated. She said that clergy told her they could grant absolution for sins and still report abuse.
LifeSiteNews asked about the excommunicable offense of violating the seal of confession and how the clergy would be able to report abuse without being excommunicated. “You know that’s really off the subject of the bill, you’re going to have to ask them that,” Dunwell said during the phone interview; however, she did not provide the names and contact info of the clergy members whom she spoke to when asked during a follow-up email.
Pressed for clarification on how it is “off the subject,” she said the question deals with “faith communities and canon law.”
“This [bill] deals with civil law and criminal law,” she added. “It has nothing to do with canon law, that’s not my job.”
LifeSiteNews again asked for clarification on the priest’s duty. Dunwell said the priest would have to report the abuse “just like any other profession does.”
“Your time is precious and so is mine,” Dunwell said, as LifeSiteNews tried to ask further questions. She repeated that this is a criminal and civil law issue, not “canon law.”
“I have folks lined up to testify. Others told me they agree with the bill, yet are reluctant to testify,” Dunwell said during a follow-up email on Tuesday.
A hearing with the judiciary committee is set for next Tuesday, January 28. The Montana Catholic Conference did not respond to an email on Monday and a voicemail left on Tuesday asking for comment on the bill and any plans to oppose it.
Another sponsor, Sen. Sara Novak, told LifeSiteNews “no” when asked on the phone if there was a religious freedom analysis done on the bill.
“In order to protect children there shouldn’t be exceptions to the mandatory reporting,” Novak also said during the Tuesday phone interview.
The other five co-sponsors did not respond to a Monday email asking about religious freedom concerns and the motivation for the bill.
The Catholic League criticized the bill in a statement sent to LifeSiteNews.
“This bill needs to be withdrawn immediately,” President Bill Donohue told LifeSiteNews in a media statement.
Donohue also called the bill “an egregious violation of the First Amendment rights of the clergy.”
“There is not a scintilla of evidence that child abusers are confessing their sins to Catholic priests,” Donohue stated. “Indeed, it strains credulity to argue that a person who is so depraved as to molest a child is likely to tell a priest about his behavior.”
He also said, “It is fatuous to think that any Catholic priest would violate his vows to satisfy the interests of politicians. They would go to jail before ever disclosing confidential information.”
Affirming the seriousness of the confessional, in 2023, a priest lost his faculties after advocating for the removal of the seal of confession. “He has publicly advocated for the removal of the legal protection of the confessional seal, suggesting there are situations where it is permissible to violate it,” Milwaukee Archbishop Jerome Listecki announced in March 2023 about Father James Connell.
“Such assertions are gravely contrary to the definitive teachings of the Catholic Church about this sacrament,” the prelate wrote. “The Catholic Church firmly declares that the sacramental seal of confession is always, and in every circumstance without exception, completely inviolable.”