As the 2024 legislative session ends, the Washington State Catholic Conference thanks the many Catholics across the state who joined us in sharing the Gospel with our lives through advocacy at the state Legislature.
Our efforts met with varying degrees of success, but we always provided the opportunity to broaden people’s understanding of our faith. We do not provide a liberal or conservative perspective, but one that is based in our belief that every human being is equally loved by our God and, therefore, equally entitled to life and to live a life of dignity.
Catholic teaching grounds the Washington State Catholic Conference’s efforts. From the biblical call to care for the poor, the stranger and those denied access to justice to the “Compendium of the Social Doctrine of the Church,” our teaching directs us to ensure “conditions of equal opportunity for men and women and guaranteeing an objective equality between the different social classes before the law.”
Thus, we advocated on the following bills and appropriations in budget bills (among several others):
Senate Bill 6298, concerning the duty of the clergy to report child abuse or neglect, required mandatory reporting by all clergy of any suspected child abuse, with an exception for information received solely during the sacrament of confession. The bill as written preserved our free exercise of religion by providing a specific exemption for confession. The bill also added a duty to warn authorities if a clergy member had reason to suspect imminent or ongoing abuse. This duty would have included information received “in part” from confession. The WSCC agreed to this provision, although problematic, with the understanding that clergy following our Safe Environment policies would be reporting their suspicions based on observed conduct, not on information received in the sacrament of confession. The bill passed the Senate but was pulled from a House committee before final action when it became clear the committee was likely to eliminate all protections for confession. We expect a bill in the 2025 session that will not include protections for the seal of confession.
Funding for newly arrived immigrants: $25.25 million has been designated for the state Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance to expand support services for newly arriving individuals who do not qualify for the federal refugee resettlement program. Support services include, but are not limited to, housing assistance, food, transportation, childhood education services, education and employment support, connection to legal services, and social services navigation. The Catholic Church has long advocated to protect the dignity and sanctity of life for individuals and families fleeing poverty, violence, the impacts of climate change or other factors forcing people to leave their home countries.
Senior nutrition programs: Advocates requested $15.2 million a year for senior nutrition programs. The final budget adds only $12 million in one-time funding to cover 13,200 seniors. Despite the shortfall, this is the biggest investment of state dollars in these programs in at least two decades. Food is a basic requirement for a life of dignity, and seniors on fixed incomes or with mobility issues might struggle to meet this basic need.
Affordable housing and homelessness: $60 million was added to increase funding for homelessness services, including shelters, rapid rehousing and transitional housing. Funding for the Housing Trust Fund increased from $111.6 million to $127.5 million. This fund enables organizations like Catholic Community Services and Housing Services of Western Washington and Catholic Charities in Eastern Washington to build affordable housing. Another $3 million has been added to the Office of Civil Legal Aid’s right-to-counsel program, which guarantees low-income tenants the right to an attorney as they navigate the eviction process in court.
Initiative 2081, concerning parental rights relating to their children’s public school education, passed the Legislature, so it will not appear on the November ballot. The initiative names parents as the primary stakeholders in their children’s upbringing. It also reiterates numerous parents’ rights within the public school system. In the tradition of Catholic social teaching, parents are the first educators of their children and should be able to access health and safety information about their child and participate meaningfully in the installation of core values, even when the child is at school.
This is a sampling of the bills we advocated on this session. To learn more about the WSCC, legislation we follow and faith-based educational opportunities during the 2024 election season, please join our advocacy network at wacatholics.org.
We thank the many Catholics who joined us this session, including those who expressed their opposing points of view for our consideration as we discerned positions on the hundreds of bills that came before the Legislature. Please continue to engage in our political communities on behalf of our brothers and sisters across the state.
Jean Welch Hill is the executive director of the Washington State Catholic Conference.