Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort, the president of the French bishops’ conference, has accepted an “invitation” to meet with the head of the country’s interior ministry, after the archbishop said that the Church would not allow priests to report what they heard in sacramental confessions.

Commenting on a new law that makes it mandatory to report sexual-abuse complaints to police, Archbishop Moulins-Beaufort said: “The seal of confession imposes itself on us and in this, it is stronger than the laws of the republic.”

A government spokesman quickly responded: “Nothing takes precedence over the laws of the republic in our country.” The exchange points toward a clash on the status of the confessional seal.