Catholic News Agency reports on Arizona House Bill 2039, introduced by state representative Anastasia Travers, which would impose felony charges on priests who refuse to violate the sacramental seal of confession when hearing allegations of child abuse during the sacrament. The bill mandates clergy report “reasonable suspicion” of ongoing abuse under penalty of class 6 felony (up to two years imprisonment and $150,000 fines). The article notes similar legislative attempts in Washington, Delaware, Vermont, Wisconsin, Montana, Hungary, and California, while acknowledging priests’ absolute canonical prohibition against violating the confessional seal under penalty of excommunication.
Direct Assault on Divine Law
The Arizona legislation constitutes blasphemous interference in the divinely instituted sacrament of Penance, violating the immutable teaching that “sigillum confessionis (the seal of confession) is inviolable” (Council of Trent, Session XIV, Chapter 5). Canon 883 of the 1917 Code expressly forbids confessors from betraying penitents “verbis vel signis vel alio quovis modo et quavis causa” (by words, signs, or any other manner and for any reason). The Baltimore Catechism (Q. 925) emphasizes that priests would commit “a most grievous sin, besides incurring an excommunication reserved in a special manner to the Pope” by violating this seal.
This diabolical legislation ignores the theological reality that the priest in confession acts in persona Christi, with the penitent confessing sins to Christ Himself. As St. Thomas Aquinas teaches: “The sacramental seal is not a human right but a divine law, to which all earthly powers must bend” (Summa Supplementum, Q. 11, Art. 3). The state’s arrogant presumption to regulate God’s tribunal exposes the modern tyranny of positivist law over divine ordinance.
Naturalistic Subversion of the Supernatural Order
The bill’s language requiring priests to assess “reasonable suspicion” of ongoing abuse reduces the sacrament to a naturalistic forensic examination, denying its supernatural character as described by Pope Pius XII: “The confessional is a tribunal of mercy, not of vindictive justice” (Mystici Corporis Christi, 88). This follows the condemned modernist error that “the Church’s sacraments are merely symbolic rites with no inherent power” (Lamentabili Sane, Proposition 40).
By prioritizing temporal child protection over eternal salvation, lawmakers enact the condemned proposition that “civil authority may interfere in matters pertaining to religion, morality, and spiritual governance” (Syllabus of Errors, Proposition 44). The legislation embodies the naturalistic heresy condemned by Pope St. Pius X as “placing earthly society above the heavenly, human legislation above divine law” (Pascendi Dominici Gregis, 26).
Historical Amnesia and Cowardly Omissions
The article’s tepid reference to “multiple priests in Church history [who] have been martyred” betrays cowardice in naming the persecutors. Where is the denunciation of Elizabethan England’s 1585 law that executed St. John Southworth for refusing to disclose confessions? Or the 1872 martyrdom of St. John Nepomucene, thrown from Prague’s Charles Bridge for protecting the confessional seal? These omissions reveal the conciliar sect’s historical illiteracy regarding the Church’s martyrological witness against state tyranny.
The article fails to cite Pope Innocent III’s decree “Non minus nos” (1215), which declared that priests violating the seal should be deposed and confined to monasteries for life. Nor does it reference Pope Benedict XIV’s apostolic constitution “Sacramentum Poenitentiae” (1741), which automatically excommunicates any priest who directly or indirectly violates the sacramental seal. This silence constitutes complicity with the state’s sacrilegious agenda.
Canonical and Theological Consequences
Any priest complying with this abominable law would incur latae sententiae excommunication under Canon 2369 of the 1917 Code and become “ipso facto deposed from office” (St. Robert Bellarmine, De Romano Pontifice II.30). The legislation fundamentally misunderstands that the confessor acts not as a private citizen but as an ordained minister of Christ’s justice. As Pope Leo XIII taught: “No human power may intrude into the tribunal of conscience” (Libertas Praestantissimum, 20).
The bill’s supposed concern for children is demonstrably hypocritical given that Arizona permits abortion up to 15 weeks – the ultimate child abuse. This exposes the state’s selective moral outrage as a mere pretext for persecuting the Church. As Archbishop Lefebvre warned: “When states claim authority over sacraments, they usurp Christ’s kingship” (They Have Uncrowned Him, Ch. 6).
Conclusion: Defense Through Martyrdom
True Catholic priests will follow the example of the Council of Trent’s anathema: “If anyone says that sacramental confession is inhuman or violates natural rights, let him be anathema” (Session XIV, Canon 7). The Church has always preferred martyrdom to sacramental betrayal, as shown when St. Mateo Correa Magallanes was executed in 1927 for refusing to disclose Cristero confessions to Mexican persecutors.
Arizona’s legislators should heed Pope Pius XI’s warning: “No power may strip Christ the King of His dominion over legislation” (Quas Primas, 18). Those enacting this sacrilegious bill align themselves with Christ’s executioners rather than His confessors. The only proper Catholic response is that of St. John Nepomucene: “I would die a thousand deaths rather than break the seal.”
Source:
Arizona bill would hit priests with felony if they fail to break confessional seal to report abuse (catholicnewsagency.com)
Date: 07.01.2026