{"id":14725,"date":"2014-07-08T18:08:49","date_gmt":"2014-07-08T22:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/?p=14725"},"modified":"2014-07-08T18:08:49","modified_gmt":"2014-07-08T22:08:49","slug":"the-seal-of-the-confessional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/2014\/07\/the-seal-of-the-confessional\/","title":{"rendered":"The Seal of the Confessional"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/figure>\n

The Catholic Diocese of\u00a0Baton Rouge<\/a>\u00a0has 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\u00a0legal documents, were made\u00a0to the priest\u00a0by a minor girl regarding possible sexual abuse perpetrated\u00a0by another church parishioner.<\/p>\n

The\u00a0statement<\/a>, published Monday (July 7)\u00a0on the\u00a0diocese\u2019s website,<\/a>\u00a0said forcing such testimony \u201cattacks the seal of confession,\u201d a sacrament that \u201ccuts to the core of the Catholic faith.\u201d<\/p>\n

The statement refers to a lawsuit naming the Rev. Jeff Bayhi and the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge as defendants\u00a0and\u00a0compels Bayhi to testify whether or not there were confessions \u201cand, if so, what the contents of any such confessions were.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cA foundational doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church for thousands of years mandates that the seal of confession is absolute and inviolable,\u201d the statement says.\u00a0\u201dThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

The state high court\u2019s decision, rendered in May of this year, demands that a hearing be held\u00a0in 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.<\/p>\n

The case stems from a claim by parents of a minor that their daughter confessed to Bayhi during the sacrament\u00a0of reconciliation that she engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior with grown man who also attended their\u00a0church. Court documents indicate\u00a0the child was 12 years old at the time of the alleged sexual abuse.<\/p>\n

A criminal investigation by East Feliciana Sheriff\u2019s Office into\u00a0the alleged sexual abuse\u00a0was ongoing when the accused church member died suddenly in February 2009 of\u00a0a heart attack.<\/p>\n

The civil lawsuit in question,\u00a0filed five\u00a0months later\u00a0in July 2009,\u00a0names 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\u00a0abuse continued following the alleged confessions.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Source:\u00a0NOLA.com:\u00a0<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Maybe the Louisiana Supreme Court thought the case involved Anglicans and not Catholics. From a story a week ago.<\/p>\n

ANGLICAN ministers told during confession about serious crimes such as child sexual abuse shouldn\u2019t be obliged to keep them secret, the church has declared.<\/strong><\/p>\n

THE ruling means ministers are only obliged to keep serious offences secret if \u201creasonably satisfied\u201d they have already been reported to police.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the Anglican Church of Australia approved the amendment on Wednesday at the church\u2019s national parliament in Adelaide.<\/p>\n

The legislation also covers other serious offences, including domestic violence.<\/p>\n

Sydney barrister Garth Blake, who proposed the amendment, said it would ensure the church did not \u201cact as a cloak\u201d for offenders.<\/p>\n

However, the legislation will only become active once adopted by individual dioceses.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Originally published as\u00a0Confession not all confidential: Anglicans<\/a><\/p>\n

Really we need to send copies of I Confess<\/strong><\/a> to members of their court.<\/p>\n

Oh and yes I linked to this story primarly as an excuse to create the above graphic.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Catholic Diocese of\u00a0Baton Rouge\u00a0has 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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,51,25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-humor","category-religious-liberty","category-sacraments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14725"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14726,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14725\/revisions\/14726"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.splendoroftruth.com\/curtjester\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}