The Confessional Seal, the Courts, and Mandatory Reporting Laws: The Historical Context for an American Catholic Dilemma

The Catholic understanding of the confessional seal contributed to and became a part of the American legal system from 1813 until the present. The Catholic law that required priest-confessors to preserve secrecy of revelations made in the Sacrament of Penance was acknowledged in American lower courts and in state legislatures for most of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The enactment of mandatory reporting laws of child abuse during the 1960s and the revelations of clerical sexual abuse of minors from the 1980s onwards, however, challenged in a few places legislation protecting the confessional seal. Although most state statutes have continued to acknowledge the confessional seal, it remains uncertain legally whether priest-penitent confidentiality is a privilege granted by the state or a right acknowledged by the United States Constitution. As of 2018, the United States Supreme Court has yet to rule on the status of the confessional seal, even though many lower courts have acknowledged the privilege or right.