PHOENIX (LifeSiteNews) — A liberal Arizona legislator has once again failed in her attempt to force Catholic priests to violate the Seal of Confession or be hit with massive fines and jail time.
As the Arizona legislative session is now officially over, so is a controversial bill from Democrat Stacey Travers. The state representative also tried unsuccessfully in 2023 to target Catholic priests and force them to reveal what they heard in Confession.
House Bill 2039 orders priests to report any time that they learn of alleged “ongoing abuse” or even the “threat” of abuse in the confessional. Those who fail to abide by the measure can be found guilty of a class 6 felony, which can carry fines up to $150,000 and two years in prison. However, that is just for a first offense. Priests who continued to violate the law, as required by Canon Law and the Catholic Church, could face years in prison.
The law also requires priests to predict what may happen in the future. While the law appears to offer a “clergy-penitent privilege,” this does not apply if “the member of the clergy, a Christian Science practitioner or a priest determines that the abuse or neglect is still occurring or will occur in the future.”
Travers’ proposed law was similar to a law in the state of Washington that had already been struck down by a federal judge when this proposal came out. LifeSiteNews previously asked her office about religious freedom concerns and legal issues in light of the federal ruling, but she did not respond at the time.
While Travers previously ignored requests for comment from LifeSiteNews, she subsequently told The Center Square that she thinks that the Catholic Church tries to “hide behind the sanctity of the Confessional” and that it is not really concerned about “absolution.”
According to Travers, a far-left legislator who is also the minority whip, “religious institutions are more concerned about their liability than they are about the faithfulness of the search for absolution.”
A Catholic Republican legislator previously told LifeSiteNews he would do what he could to “kill” this bill, as he did in 2023.
The bill’s number, 2039, “means that she worked double time during the interim in order to drop this bill as early as possibly can,” Quang Nguyen said during a January phone interview. “So, what does that tell me? You could not wait to destroy my church.”
“I’m going to be very frank about this,” he said, “this bill has absolutely zero to do with reporting crimes because duty to report already exists in the state of Arizona, just not in the confessional booth,” Nguyen continued. “That is all…. This is a way to go out and destroy our church. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Bill is latest failed attempt to target Catholics
Legislators in a handful of states have tried in recent years to target the Catholic Church and force priests to commit the excommunicable offense of violating the Seal of Confession.
While the law did pass in Washington after several attempts, other proposals have failed.
In Montana, Democrat Mary Ann Dunwell’s efforts hit a brick wall in 2025 following reporting from LifeSiteNews. She amended her law in concert with the Montana Catholic Conference, though that version would still require priests to report allegations of abuse that they learned of through counseling.
She claimed to LifeSiteNews that she had spoken to clergy who supported her Seal of Confession bill, but then would not reveal specific names.
Only one priest, Fr. Jim Connell, spoke in favor of Dunwell’s amended version of the law. However, he is barred from hearing Confessions because he advocates breaking the Seal of Confession.