Posted on 07/15/2014 6:38:24 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
When in 2008 Father Jeff Bayhi, a priest then at Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, La., heard the troubling confession of a twelve-year-old parishioner, he likely did not imagine that his sacramental duty would land him in prison. But given a recent ruling by the Louisiana Supreme Court, Father Bayhi is in the position of choosing between prison and excommunication.
Per the Supreme Court’s ruling, Bayhi must appear before the 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, which will determine whether what he heard – a civil action by the girl’s parents contends that it involved allegations of sexual abuse by a 64-year-old parishioner — constituted a “confession” or instead some other non-confidential statement that invoked Bayhi’s duty to report abuse under Louisiana’s Children’s Code. Under the law, members of the clergy are “mandatory reporters” except when they have a duty to keep private “confidential communications” shared “in the course of the discipline or practice of that church” by “the discipline or tenets of the church” (CHC 603.17.c).
If what Bayhi heard was in fact a confession, that provision would seem to exempt him, except that under Louisiana law, priest–penitent privilege attaches to the client, not the priest. If the client chooses to make the contents of a confession public, the priest can be called to confirm or deny the testimony. However, Church teaching makes no provisions for the statutes of Louisiana: “The sacramental seal is inviolable; therefore it is absolutely forbidden for a confessor to betray in any way a penitent in words or in any manner and for any reason” (Code of Canon Law 983.1). Priests who make known directly or indirectly to a third party the contents of a confession are automatically excommunicated, subject to reversal by the pope alone. The inviolability of sacramental confession has been formally communicated since the Fourth Council of the Lateran in 1215, though its origins predate that.
There is an apparent conflict between the ages-old laws of the Catholic Church and Louisiana legislation passed in 1991, but it is not the role of the state’s supreme court to adjudicate between the two. The First Amendment and historical precedent clearly shield Father Bayhi from having to testify in violation of his vocation.
Insofar as the First Amendment intended any “separation between church and state,” it was to protect the church from the state, not vice versa. The notion of a judge having the ability to determine what is or is not a confession should be deeply disturbing. To make the secrecy of the confession booth subject to the judiciary would effectively destroy the sacrament of Penance, which is facilitated by the penitent’s knowledge that he can confess any action to the priest without fearing legal consequences.
Making the sacrament a vehicle of the law pressures Catholics to forgo confession in order to avoid the possibility of state punishment, in which case the state would be coercing the consciences of Catholics and restricting their constitutional right to freely exercise their religion. Additionally, requiring priests to report confessions increases the likelihood that priests would refuse to hear them for fear of making themselves subject to legal action. This would be an obvious violation of the First Amendment rights of Catholic clergy.
American law has long understood this. As early as 1813, American courts recognized a priest’s ability to refuse to testify in court about conversations in the confession booth. Five years later, a separate court made the same decision. No precedent exists in American jurisprudence for compelling a priest to testify to confidential communications, and most states have expressly privileged particular communications with clergy.
It is worth noting that there is a question of whether the priest fulfilled his clerical obligations in response to the allegations. While troubling, that is not at issue here. He may roundly deserve discipline from the Church. But failures of vocational ethics do not exclude one from the protections of the First Amendment.
The constitutional principle at stake here is fundamental to the religious liberty of millions of Americans and the clergy who serve them. Father Bayhi should be subject to the disciplinary powers of his ecclesial authorities, but he cannot be allowed to be subject to the coercive powers of the state.
Does anyone know for sure if this case is about civil damages against the diocese? I think she did testify in court, but how do you award damages or even charge the priest with something when his faith tells him he can’t even confirm he heard her confession? Like I said, if the law is indeed this way in LA and supposedly other states, why hasn’t this come up before?
FReegards
I hope they get money from the church. A ton of it.
If she was in a confessional with the priest, then it was a confession.
But it does seem that there was an "easy out" for the priest at the time....simply tell the girl to come and talk to him outside the confessional.
While I can't agree with the part about a twelve year old allowing a rape (no capacity to give consent), there is a more logical possibility.
Children this age are ego centric and will often take blame upon themselves for things that we, as adults, know are beyond their control. For instance, thinking that parents divorced because they were "bad" kids.
If the perp groomed the child as most perps do, he would have easily been able to reinforce that erroneous thought she might have about being at fault.
If that was the case, she may have come forward to confess her mistaken belief that she was at fault, in which case it would be the confessor's religious duty to help her understand the fallacy of her thinking while directing her to the resources to make the report.
If this was the scenario that unfolded, then I suppose the priest could have assisted her to make the report.
It is a civil case yes. Not a criminal one. As far as I understand there is no criminal case being investigated.
Whatever is said in the confessional is a confession. It does not have to be a personal confession of guilt in order to be confidential.
But after having heard the girl’s confession, the priest could have advised the girl to report the rape to the proper authorities without breaking his vow of silence.
After all, the priest is there to hear confessions but also to advice the penitent how to avoid a particular sin in the future.
“But after having heard the girl’s confession, the priest could have advised the girl to report the rape to the proper authorities without breaking his vow of silence.”
Yeah, if there was some sort of conference outside confession or something then the mandatory reporting law would supposedly kick in. But then I don’t understand why the lawsuit, unless he only told her after the first few confessions and then had some sort of conference. But if everything did happen in confession, how do we know that the priest didn’t advise her to do exactly that? I’m not saying he did, but wouldn’t it look exactly the same whether he did or not to us, depending on what the girl then decided to do?
Truly a mess, and I don’t understand why something like this is only happening now if the law has been this way since 1991.
Freegards
The authorities may have questioned the girl who it was who advised her to report the crime to them.
The priest’s name then came up.
Well, she is saying that the priest told her that she needed to keep the crime quiet, they are apparently suing the diocese over it. But the priest can’t even admit that he heard her confession at all much less what he told her, even if he wanted to (which I am not saying he does). The priest could be culpable as heck, he could be innocent. But either way it is all going to be the same, right? It’s not like he has the option of saying, ‘of course I will testify, I have nothing to hide,’ even if he really doesn’t have anything to hide he still can’t do anything different than if he is guilty.
Freegards
The first Amendment to the Federal Constitution says Congress shall make no law. As it is there is no congressional law in question here, so Technically and literally the 1st amendment to the Federal Constitution is ill-relevant on this issue.
What is relevant is the Louisiana Constitution which probably does have some rather point full things to say on the issue.
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