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Penitent Elizabeth E. Santamaria prays after confession May 8, 2019, at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church in East Palo Alto. (CNS photo/Chaz Muth)
Updated June 29, 12:52 p.m.
June 17, 2019
Catholic San FranciscoIn a June 29 letter to the priests of the Archdiocese of San Francisco's 90 parishes, Archbishop Salvatore J. Cordileone thanked pastors for their support of a June 22-23 letter-writing campaign in which at least 18,000 local Catholics signed letters of opposition to SB 360, a proposed law that threatens the seal of confession.
The letters were hand delivered to state Assembly members' local district offices June 28 during Religious Freedom Week, June 22-29. Among those present were Capuchin Franciscan Father Michael Mahoney, pastor of Our Lady of Angels in Burlingame, and Msgr. John Talesfore, pastor of St. Matthew Parish in San Mateo, as well as a number of parishioners were joined by the mayor of Burlingame.
The state Senate has already approved the bill.
"As American citizens and Catholics, you spoke up for religious freedom, not just for Catholics, but for all people of faith who are protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution," the archbishop wrote.
The letter-writing campaign was coordinated by the archdiocesan Office of Human Life & Dignity the weekend of June 22-23. Letters were available for signature at all Masses and signed letters were delivered to state Assembly members in Sacramento this week. Parishioners may still send an electronic letter via a special web page at https://www.sfarch.org/KeepTheSeal.
The state Assembly Public Safety Committee will hold a public hearing on several bills, including SB 360, on July 9. The eight-member committee consists of six Democrats and two Republicans.
The California Catholic Conference is also urging Catholics to attend the hearing held in California State Capitol Building, Room 126, at 10th and L Streets in Sacramento. The Archdiocese of San Francisco is chartering buses to Sacramento for Catholics interested in attending. Buses will leave at 6 a.m. and return approximately 2:30 p.m. For more information and to reserve space on the bus contact lifeanddignity@sfarch.org.
“SB 360 would take away from priests and from everyone who works with priests in parishes and Church agencies across the state the full right to confess their sins with the assurance of confidentiality,” Archbishop Cordileone said in a letter to the faithful issued June 17 and intended for distribution at Masses June 22-23.
SB 360, which passed in the Senate May 23 by a 30-4 vote, would force priests to disclose information about child sexual abuse that they learn when they are hearing another priest's confession or when hearing the confession of a co-worker.
The bill is expected to have a vote in the Assembly in September.
“The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is protected by the seal of confession,” the archbishop wrote. “Under no circumstance can a priest disclose anything he hears during confession. This protection afforded to our Catholic people assures them that what they say in confession will never be revealed, so that they may have full confidence in attaining peace of conscience. It is a protection the Church has respected from time immemorial.
“Importantly,” the archbishop added, “this legislation will do nothing to protect children. Priests and Church officials are already mandated reporters of sex abuse of children. In our Archdiocese and in all California dioceses, strict policies are already in place to protect children and to require and facilitate reporting to law enforcement of any suspected abuse. Any violation of a child is unconscionable, and the Church is committed to protecting all children from abuse of any kind.”
With the archbishop’s letter, the San Francisco archdiocese joined the Los Angeles archdiocese and other dioceses in the state in a push to defeat the bill.
"Our lawmakers have good intentions. They want to prevent child abuse," Los Angeles Archbishop Jose H. Gomez said in a letter he issued June 10 that was to be read at Masses the following weekend. "But there is no evidence that this legislation will do that. Instead, it threatens a practice that is essential to our faith and religious identity."
"We need your help to protect this sacrament of the church and to keep confession sacred," he said. "And we need to continue our commitment to building a society where every child is loved, protected and safe."
The Catholic Church in California set up a new website, KeepTheSeal.com, which is a hub that gives people easy access to materials about SB 360 as well as a way to send emails to their legislators.
As it is in many U.S. states, California requires priests, teachers, social workers, doctors and other professionals to be "mandated reporters." That means by law they are required to report any case of suspected abuse to authorities.
There is currently an exemption in California law for any clergy member "who acquires knowledge or a reasonable suspicion of child abuse or neglect during a penitential communication."
For Catholics, that penitential communication would be in the confessional.
"The sacrament of penance and reconciliation, what we call confession, was the first gift that Jesus gave to the world after rising from the dead," Archbishop Gomez said in his letter. "On the first Easter night, he breathed his Holy Spirit into his apostles, his first priests, and he granted them the awesome power to forgive sins in his name.
"Jesus gave us this gift so that we could always come to him, personally, to confess our sins and seek his forgiveness and the grace to continue on our Christian journey."
Catholics confess their sins not to a man but to God -- the priest "stands in the place of Jesus," he said, and the confessor's words are "addressed to God."
As SB 360 made its way through the Legislature, the California bishops urged lawmakers to strengthen and clarify mandated reporting requirements while maintaining the traditional protections for "penitential communications."
Before the measure went to the Senate floor, lawmakers "accepted several of the church's recommendations to strengthen mandated reporting requirements for clergy," as Archbishop Gomez noted in a May 20 statement.
But in the end he and other Catholic leaders were "deeply disappointed" by passage of the measure because under it priests would still have to break the seal of confession to disclose information about child sex abuse heard in the confessional.
Catholic News Service contributed.