Because of questions rising from AG subpoenas, House committee must strike “penitent communication” exemption from mandatory reporting bill

Archbishop Étienne will not say if Catholic dioceses have cooperated with requests for abuse-related documents

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: FEBRUARY 15, 2024

CONTACT:
Tim Law
ECA Co-founder/Board Member
+1-206-412-0165
timalaw@aol.com

Mary Dispenza
SNAP Northwest Director
+1-425-941-6001
mcdispenza@comcast.net

WHEN: 8:00am, Friday, February 16, 2024

WHERE: O’Brien Building, Room D, 504 15th Ave SW, Olympia, WA 98501

WHAT: On Friday morning, clergy abuse survivors and advocates from the organizations Catholic Accountability Project (CAP), Ending Clergy Abuse (ECA), and the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP) will testify in opposition to SB 6298, “an act relating to the duty of the clergy to report child abuse or neglect,” before the Washington State House Human Services, Youth, & Early Learning Committee.

WHY: Opposition to the penitential communication exemption in the bill is especially urgent given revelations this week regarding Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s subpoenas to Washington State’s Catholic bishops last August for documents related to clergy sexual abuse.

CAP members had a conversation with Archbishop Étienne on Wednesday afternoon about the AG subpoenas and a recent case of a priest removed from a Renton parish.

Both Attorney General Ferguson and Archbishop Étienne of the Seattle Archdiocese did not deny that the subpoenas were issued. When questioned by members of CAP following the Ash Wednesday service at St. James Cathedral in a recorded interaction, Étienne would not say whether the Catholic dioceses of Washington State had cooperated with any requests for documents and evidence.

Furthermore, when asked about Father Arulanandam Robert Antony, H.G.N., a priest removed from St.Stephens in Renton last December for a violation of the Safe Environment Code of Conduct, Étienne admitted for the first time on Wednesday that Antony was under canonical investigation by the Vatican. The Archbishop did not share this information in his letter to the St. Stephens congregation in December.

In a clergy mandatory reporting bill introduced last year, (SB 5280), the House Human Services, Youth, and Early Learning Committee made an amendment to remove the penitential communication exemption. Survivors’ organizations are urging the committee to again amend the legislation striking this privilege from the bill.

Survivors and advocates will be available for comment following the hearing.

###