Church Records and the Courts Recent Court Rulings Undermine the Church's Promise of Confidentiality., by William W. Bassett, America, October 29, 2007

Church Records and the Courts
Recent Court Rulings Undermine the Church's Promise of Confidentiality

By William W. Bassett
America
October 29, 2007

http://americamagazine.org/content/article.cfm?article_id=10335

Catholics should recognize that a sea change is taking place in jurisprudence in the United States concerning the rights of religious institutions. The issue is confidentiality, the promise of privacy that lies at the core of the right to free exercise of religion protected by the First Amendment. Caught in storms of conflict over the crisis caused by sexual abuse of minors by members of the Catholic clergy, bishops and religious superiors can no longer assure the faithful, including priests and religious, of the confidentiality of sensitive personal communications outside the narrow strictures of the priest-penitent privilege in the sacrament of reconciliation.