LOUISIANA
The Advocate
In a long-running case involving the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge, a state judge declared unconstitutional Friday a provision of the Louisiana Chidren’s Code that requires priests — as mandatory reporters of suspected abuse — to report allegations of wrongdoing even if the information is learned confidentially in the confessional.
District Judge Mike Caldwell ruled in the case that the provision violates Father Jeff Bayhi’s constitutionally protected religious freedom rights because Bayhi would be kicked out of the Catholic Church if he ever disclosed what was said in a confession.
Bayhi and the diocese were sued in 2009 by Rebecca Mayeaux, who claims she told Bayhi in a 2008 confession — when she was 14 — that a 64-year-old parishioner of Our Lady of the Assumption Catholic Church in Clinton, where Bayhi was and remains pastor, was sexually abusing her. She alleges Bayhi told her to “sweep it under the floor and get rid of it.” The parishioner died in 2009.
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