Catholic Confession Case: Baton Rouge Diocese Asks U.S. Supreme Court for Review

By Emily Lane
The Times-Picayune
September 4, 2014

http://www.nola.com/crime/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2014/09/catholic_confession_case_could.html

The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a decision by the Louisiana Supreme Court regarding the confidentiality of religious confessions. The case involves confessions allegedly made by a minor girl to a Baton Rouge priest involving molestation by a fellow parishioner. The girl's family has sued the priest and diocese, claiming they were negligent in allowing the alleged abuse to continue and should have reported it to authorities. (Jacquelyn Martin, The Associated Press)

The Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review a ruling by the state Supreme Court it says threatens the confidentiality of religious confessions.

The Louisiana Supreme Court's ruling, rendered in May, laid out arguments that priests should be subject to mandatory reporting laws regarding abuse of minors if the person who makes the confession waives confidentiality. Normally, priests are exempt as mandatory reporters in the setting of confessions. The decision by the state's high court stated confidentially is intended to protect the person who made the confessions, not the person who receives them.

"The Louisiana Supreme Court's ruling strikes a very hard blow against religious freedom," said the diocese in a press release sent Thursday (Sept. 4).

The original case involves a minor girl who alleges she confessed during the sacrament of Reconciliation to Baton Rouge priest Father George Bayhi that a fellow church parishioner had molested her.

Rebecca Mayeux, who was a minor at the time of the alleged confessions, said in an interview to WBRZ in July, at age 20, that Bayhi told her to "take care of it."

The Mayeux family has sued the priest and diocese for damages, claiming they were negligent in allowing the alleged abuse to continue and should have reported it to authorities. The suit also names the estate of the man Mayeux says molested her, who died in 2009, as a defendant.

The court's ruling did not decide the case but ordered it returned to the district level for a hearing to let both sides present evidence about the nature of the confessions. The hearing would decide if the communications between Mayeux and Bayhi should be considered religious confessions and/or explore the content of what was allegedly said.

The diocese's latest petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, filed Aug. 24, argues case law from Serbian Eastern Orthodox Diocese v. Milivojevich makes clear that "religious controversies are not the proper subject of civil court inquiry."

The hearing proposed by Louisiana Supreme Court would violate the church's constitutional protection afforded by the First and Fourteenth Amendments of the U.S. Constitution, to abide by its own laws, it concludes. Moreover, the diocese noted in a press release sent Thursday (Sept. 4) that the "Catholic Church requires that priests keep all that is learned during the Sacrament of Reconciliation absolutely confidential under penalty of excommunication."

Mayeux's allegations have already been expressed publicly, and if they were to go to trial as the state's high court has ordered, Father Bayhi and the diocese would be "utterly unable to defend themselves," the release says, unless Bayhi violate his vows.

Don Richard, a New Orleans lawyer for the diocese on the case who agreed to speak to NOLA.com | The Times-Picayune about the petition process but not about the facts of the case, said the Mayeux family has 30 days from the petition filing date to file a response.

The U.S. Supreme Court receives about 7,000 requests to review cases, Richard said, and hears only about 80. The diocese should know in a couple of months if the Supreme Court agrees to review the diocese's "writ of certiorari." If the court agrees to take up the case both sides will submit briefs and present oral arguments within about eight to 10 months. The diocese has also retained Charlottesville lawyer and University of Virginia School of Law professor Daniel Ortiz to help handle the Supreme Court filing.

The diocese also noted in its press release that previously sealed court documents have since been made public at the wishes of all parties. The unsealed documents, the release says, "leave no question that the plaintiff alleges her communications with Father Bayhi only took place during the Sacrament of Reconciliation."

Richard said the diocese lawyers have other avenues to explore should the U.S. Supreme Court forego a review of the case, but he would not elaborate.

"The diocese and Father Bayhi will take every legal step available to ensure that those proceedings (the hearing in district court regarding the alleged confessions) never occur," the release says.

The sexual abuse was alleged to have occurred in 2008. Both the girl and the alleged abuser were members of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, where Bayhi was a pastor. The petition alleged that on three separate dates in July 2008, the child told Bayhi a church member had inappropriately touched her, kissed her and told her "he wanted to make love to her." Court documents also say the alleged abuser communicated excessively with the girl over email and asked that she keep their relationship private.

The child testified during deposition that Bayhi's advice to her was to handle the issue herself because "too many people would be hurt." Court documents also say she testified, "He just said, this is your problem. Sweep it under the floor."

A message left for Mayeux's attorney Brian Ables was not immediately returned Thursday evening.