For the third consecutive year, the Senate Human Services Committee will hold a public hearing on SB 5375, a controversial bill that seeks to classify clergy as mandatory reporters of child abuse and ...

Proposed legislation looking to repeal clergy-penitent protections in at least two states is in a head-on collision with the church's primary legal code, one expert told OSV News. Monta ...

Two Democratic state lawmakers are trying again to require clergy members in Washington to report child abuse or neglect, ...

The state senator who introduced the measure says she cannot ‘stomach any argument about religious freedom being more ...

While clergy are often mandatory reporters outside of the confessional, long-standing legal precedent in the U.S. recognizes ...

Senate Bill 5375 would add Washington to the list of 45 other states requiring clergy to report knowledge or suspicion of ...

Last year, Frame crafted what she described as a “delicate” and “very narrowly defined compromise” with the Washington State Catholic Conference. It preserved the clergy-penitent privilege.

Washington lawmakers are once again tackling the sensitive issue of mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect by clergy ...

A Montana bill that could compel Catholic priests to break the seal of confession is being criticized by Catholics who say it could eliminate key religious liberty protections. The proposed bill ...