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Baton Rouge Diocese condemns ruling that could compel a priest to testify about confession
The Deacon's Bench ^ | July 8, 2014 | Deacon Greg Kandra

Posted on 07/08/2014 2:14:18 PM PDT by NYer

From NOLA.com:

The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge has issued a statement decrying a decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court that could compel a local priest to testify in court about confessions he might have received. The alleged confessions, according to legal documents, were made to the priest by a minor girl regarding possible sexual abuse perpetrated by another church parishioner.

The statement, published Monday (July 7) on the diocese’s website, said forcing such testimony “attacks the seal of confession,” a sacrament that “cuts to the core of the Catholic faith.”

The statement refers to a lawsuit naming the Rev. Jeff Bayhi and the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge as defendants and compels Bayhi to testify whether or not there were confessions “and, if so, what the contents of any such confessions were.”

“A foundational doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church for thousands of years mandates that the seal of confession is absolute and inviolable,” the statement says. ”The position of the Diocese of Baton Rouge and Fr. Bayhi is that the Supreme Court of Louisiana has run afoul of the constitutional rights of both the Church and the priest, more particularly, has violated the Establishment Clause and the separation of Church and State under the first amendment.”

The state high court’s decision, rendered in May of this year, demands that a hearing be held in 19th Judicial District Court in Baton Rouge, where the suit originated, to determine whether or not a confession was made. It reverses an earlier decision by the Louisiana First Circuit Court of Appeals dismissing the original lawsuit filed against Bayhi and the diocese.

The case stems from a claim by parents of a minor that their daughter confessed to Bayhi during the sacrament of reconciliation that she engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with grown man who also attended their church. Court documents indicate the child was 12 years old at the time of the alleged sexual abuse.

A criminal investigation by East Feliciana Sheriff’s Office into the alleged sexual abuse was ongoing when the accused church member died suddenly in February 2009 of a heart attack.

The civil lawsuit in question, filed five months later in July 2009, names the late sexual abuse suspect, as well as Bayhi and the Baton Rouge diocese, as defendants. The suit seeks damages suffered as a result of the sexual abuse, noting that abuse continued following the alleged confessions.

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TOPICS: Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
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To: FredZarguna; BlackElk
Nobody is free to exercise his religion when the state can show a compelling interest. That’s the Federal case law concerning the First Amendment, and it has been for many years.

Pinging for your learned input.

21 posted on 07/08/2014 4:15:03 PM PDT by verga (Conservative, leaning libertarian)
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To: Jacquerie

No, it means you can’t commit crimes and then claim your religion protects you.


22 posted on 07/08/2014 4:42:01 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: Campion
Quite wrong, but by all means don't read the article and continue in your ignorance.

For those actually interested in the plaintiffs complaint:

The petitioners claim[ed] Bayhi was negligent in advising the minor regarding the alleged abuse and failed his duty as a mandatory reporter in compliance with the Louisiana Children's Code. It also holds the diocese liable for failing to properly train the priest regarding mandatory reporting of sexual abuse of minors.

The priest effectively shielded the perpetrator by failing to properly report the crime, and by failing to advise the victim of the proper course of action. That amounts to protecting the molester, regardless of whose confession he heard.

23 posted on 07/08/2014 4:47:12 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: verga
Don't take my word for it.

Take the word of Antonin Scalia, whom I assume no one on this board thinks is a "socialist" or anti-Christian.

Writing for a 6-3 majority in the case of Employment Division vs. Smith he wrote: "the Court has never held that an individual's religious beliefs excuse him from compliance with an otherwise valid law prohibiting conduct that government is free to regulate. Allowing exceptions to every state law or regulation affecting religion "would open the prospect of constitutionally required exemptions from civic obligations of almost every conceivable kind." Scalia cited as examples compulsory military service, payment of taxes, vaccination requirements, and child-neglect laws.

24 posted on 07/08/2014 4:54:21 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: FredZarguna

Taking and keeping confession isn’t a crime.


25 posted on 07/08/2014 5:01:07 PM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V)
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To: FredZarguna

When judges use “compelling state interest,” it typically means they personally disagree with a statute or constitutional amendment. It means the judge substitutes his opinion for that of the legislative process. It is evil.


26 posted on 07/08/2014 5:05:18 PM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V)
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To: FredZarguna
Do you remember Bernardine the Radical Queen Dohrn (consort of Obozopal Bill Ayres), the well-scrubbed and quite attractive (in her long ago youth born in 1942) former high school cheerleader whose skin tight leather skirts came almost all the way down to her navel? I trust I have your attention, Fred.

Bernardine and her main squeeze Ayres went "underground" after the Weatherman faction of Students for a Demonratic Society had admitted to the adoring lamestream media in the 1970s their role in a vicious street assault on Chicago prosecutor Richard Elrod who was rendered paralyzed from the neck down by the assault. Dohrn then composed lyrics for a parody song "Lay, Elrod, Lay!" to mock the victim. She also expressed her admiration for Charles Manson and the "Manson Family" for the butchery involved in the Tate-LaBianca murders. All in all, other than her once youthful good looks, a real charmer whom you would not have brought home to your mother as your fiancee.

Dohrn and Ayres surfaced again in 1980 and were taken into custody on a variety of serious charges. A dimwit in the prosecution of another radical gave Dohrn immunity from prosecution to force her to testify. Celebrating her immunity, she then refused to testify and did about a year on the installment plan on serial contempt citations and then left free as a bird when the court had to admit that jailing her had no coercive effect. Now she is, what else, a law professor at Northwestern University despite being disbarred for the crimes she committed as a radical.

I hate Bernardine Dohrn, her husband, her associates and her causes. I love her tactics and recommend them to any Catholic, including priests, faced with religious persecution at the hands of any American government or judge. The court system is incapable of restraining such efforts. They cannot get beyond the shock of learning that many folks just refuse to regard them as gods, just like their ancient Roman pagan counterparts. Dohrn who is anything but Catholic has violated our trademark but that's OK. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery and, in this matter of courts with overgrown ids, an effective weapon and a nonviolent one.

27 posted on 07/08/2014 5:10:20 PM PDT by BlackElk (Dean of Discipline, Tomas de Torquemada Gentlemen's Society: Rack 'em Danno!)
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To: Jacquerie
No, it doesn't.

It's a component of strict scrutiny, and is one component of the highest standard of Constitutional protection we have. Read the case law. Read Scalia's opinion in my previous post. Compelling MEANS compelling. It doesn't mean "I personally disagree," or anything remotely resembling that.

It's amazing to me that people who think that some of the same justices who just joined in the Hobby Lobby decision are a bunch of radical leftists.

28 posted on 07/08/2014 5:13:09 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: BlackElk
Prurient depictions of evil people don't hold any fascination for me, so that did not get my attention.

As for your long-winded discursis, which is equality uninteresting, I recommended EXACTLY the same thing in about 1/10 as many words in a post on this thread long ago.

If the priest really wants to uphold the seal of the confessional, the means are entirely within his power.

29 posted on 07/08/2014 5:16:10 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: Jacquerie

There are obviously circumstances when it can be, and at this point the judiciary of LA believes this is one of them.


30 posted on 07/08/2014 5:17:39 PM PDT by FredZarguna (Das ist nicht nur nicht richtig, es ist nicht einmal falsch!)
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To: FredZarguna
How long before there is a "compelling state interest" in doing anything necessary to prevent the "hate" that is any form of opposition to the LGBT agenda? How long before there is a "compelling state interest" in "saving" children from their "radical" parents by preventing the religious training of said children? How long before there is a "compelling state interest" in penalizing those who attend Church?

The thing about a "compelling state interest" is that unlike the Bill of Rights, it is based largely on current attitudes.

An attack on a long-protected Christian practice under the guise of a "compelling state interest" is indeed creeping socialism. We're on a slippery slope.

31 posted on 07/08/2014 5:23:23 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: FredZarguna

Sorry, I’ve read enough decisions to know that compelling state interest is a dangerous sweeping term that typically sets leftist government desires above individual rights.


32 posted on 07/08/2014 5:26:11 PM PDT by Jacquerie (Article V)
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To: NYer

The priest won’t cave. He’ll go to prison first.


33 posted on 07/08/2014 5:31:07 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love tenderly, to walk humbly with your God)
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To: NYer

The priest won’t cave. He’ll go to prison first.


34 posted on 07/08/2014 5:31:45 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love tenderly, to walk humbly with your God)
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To: AlaskaErik

You must be a Master of Non-Sequitur.


35 posted on 07/08/2014 5:32:43 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Department of Redundancy Department.)
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To: FredZarguna; BlackElk
Don't take my word for it.

I'm not. That being said can you show me a single case where a Catholic Priest has been ordered to comply and done so.

36 posted on 07/08/2014 5:34:02 PM PDT by verga (Conservative, leaning libertarian)
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To: bonfire; AlaskaErik
Government prosecutor....”tell me who has confessed sexual abuse to you....

Priest responds: “first,people don’t identify themselves to me by name.That is by design. Second,I can’t see their faces. That,too,is by design. Third,many people...out of shame or embarrassment...disguise their voices. So even if I *wanted* to help you I couldn’t." Or say a child victim of abuse -- as in this case -- told this in confession. The priest takes the initiative and tips off the police about a possible victim:

Yeah, ring up 911 and say: "Somebody --- I don't know who--- said he or maybe she was sexually molested, but I don't know exactly what was done to him or her, or by whom, or where, or how long ago."

And that benefits whom?

Or, lastly, just put a wire and a videocam in every Confessional.

At which point, nobody goes to Confession.

That solves the problem! --- but only if your "problem" is with the very existence of the Sacraments of the Catholic Church.

37 posted on 07/08/2014 5:38:02 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Department of Redundancy Department.)
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To: FredZarguna; MDLION
As FReeper MDLion said on a similar thread (you don't mind me quoting you, do you, MDLion?):

"When told the decision could pave the way for Planned Parenthood and other abortionists having to provide the names of those paying for the abortions of minor girls to see if statutory rape was involved, the Louisiana Supreme Court added an addendum to their decision reading, “Oh .... scratch this decision.”

38 posted on 07/08/2014 5:42:39 PM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Department of Redundancy Department.)
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To: AlaskaErik

John 20:21-23.


39 posted on 07/08/2014 5:52:23 PM PDT by Wyrd bið ful aræd (Asperges me, Domine, hyssopo et mundabor, Lavabis me, et super nivem dealbabor.)
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To: FredZarguna
"Compelling Interest" is not the root password to the Constitution.

What, if any, limit on State Power do you recognize? At what point may the Citizen tell the State "NO", and the State must suck it up?

What areas of life may be outside the State, or against the State?

How does your position differ from Mussolini's?

Be specific.

40 posted on 07/08/2014 5:56:25 PM PDT by NorthMountain
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