Posted on 12/26/2015 7:26:14 AM PST by marshmallow
A Catholic priest at the center of a contentious court case pitting the secrecy of the confessional against state laws designed to protect children is suing a Baton Rouge television station over the station's reporting of the case.
The Rev. Jeff Bayhi claims he has been defamed and is seeking damages from WBRZ-TV in 19th Judicial District Court.
In the underlying court case on which WBRZ has reported, Rebecca Mayeux claims when she was 14 she told Bayhi - her pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption in Clinton - that she was sexually abused by a now-deceased church parishioner. She alleges Bayhi neglected his duty under Louisiana law to report the alleged abuse to authorities.
"During this reporting, WBRZ-TV and its employees presented Mayeux's claims against Father Bayhi in such a manner as to create the impression that those claims were facts instead of mere allegations," lawyer Henry Olinde Jr. writes in Bayhi's suit against the station.
WBRZ news director Lee Polowczuk said Dec. 22 that the station's attorneys were reviewing the suit and he could not comment on the specific allegations in it. "We're confident the outcome will be in WBRZ's favor," he added.
Olinde declined to elaborate on the suit.
Bayhi, in response to the Mayeux lawsuit and in his suit against WBRZ, maintains that as a Roman Catholic priest he is bound by the sacred seal of confession and can neither disclose what happens in any confession nor confirm or deny that a confession ever took place.
"Should Father Bayhi violate that sacred seal in any way, his faculties as a Roman Catholic priest would be immediately and automatically suspended by the Vatican itself," Olinde points out in the priest's suit against the station.
(Excerpt) Read more at theadvocate.com ...
a) why this matter was even raised in confession.
b) why her parents didn't go directly to the authorities without involving the priest, except perhaps to inform him as a matter of courtesy, since the accused was one of his parishioners.
The deposition should be a lot of fun. Burden is on him to make out a prima facie case. The broadcaster will then raise truth as a defense (as well as whatever other defenses they may have. He's not going to be able to refute that unless he testifies, which he hasn't done thus far. Hard to see what he's trying to do at this point.
Victims of abuse often have misplaced feelings of guilt, to my understanding. I don’t know the whole story, but how do you know the parents involved the priest?
What I have never understood about this law is why the Church hasn’t been sued into oblivion before this. The law was passed in the 90s if I recall. Seems to me the Church has absolutely no way to defend itself against any allegations about what was said in confession.
Freegards
That raises an even more interesting twist. If it wasn't a proper matter for confession, then perhaps the privilege shouldn't attach at all. That's a bit farther than the Louisiana Supreme Court has been willing to go.
If it was said in confession and not some other setting, I don’t think he can say anything about it even if they were just discussing the weather. He can’t even confirm it took place at all, even if no sins were actually confessed, at least to my understanding.
Freegards
For anyone who needs a refresher, the underlying Louisiana Supreme Court decision can be found here:
Correct.
Right, however, the Priest should have strongly counseled the girl to report to authorities or otherwise protected or helped. There can be drawn the moral equivalency that the Catholic Church is no different than Planned Parenthood in its protection of victims of abuse.
But how can anyone tell that priest didn’t do exactly that? I mean I am not saying he did by any means, but wouldn’t his actions look the same no matter what he said?
Freegards
Rape little children and then play the victim. Nice going, scumbag.
Cut and pasted without having read the article.
“Hard to see what he’s trying to do at this point”
Preserving the sacred seal of confession. . .as he is bound to.
How do we know he didn’t?
Seal of the confessional.
The girl can make any accusation for any reason(s) and he has to remain silent.
This is the first I’ve heard of this case.
Assumptions of any kind - good or bad - cannot be made.
The problem is - whether the priest behaved appropriately - or not - cannot be confirmed or denied.
No, if that was his goal, he wouldn’t be suing the media. No way his case should survive summary judgment unless he’s willing to testify.
Remember, in the earlier case, the issue wasn’t whether he he had to testify, it was whether the girl could. “Shortly before trial was scheduled to commence in the present matter, the Church filed its motion in limine, seeking to prevent the plaintiffs from “mentioning, referencing, and/or introducing evidence at trial of any confessions that may or may not have taken place” between plaintiffs’ minor child and the priest...”
But here, the burden of proof will be on the priest, since he is the plaintiff. He's going to have to come up with the evidence, first for a prima facie case, then second to refute the affirmative defenses of the defendant media.
Not the girl making the statements here. It is the priest. He says the tv station defamed him. He’s going to have to prove that.
I can’t imagine a lawyer would accept him as a client if there wasn’t a way to present evidence.
Maybe there something that happened outside of the confessional they can use.
My response was not cut and pasted. But any time I see "priest" and anything to do with abusing children in the same sentence I automatically assume he molested children. 99.9 percent of the time my assumption would be correct. This time it wasn't.
“seeking to prevent the plaintiffs from “mentioning, referencing, and/or introducing evidence at trial of any confessions that may or may not have taken place†between plaintiffs’ minor child and the priest..”
Still, the way I read that, he is not commenting because to do so would violate the sanctity of the confessional.
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