LOUISIANA
The Advocate
BY JAMES GILL | jgill@theadvocate.com AUG 3, 2016
It’s been seven years since Rebecca Mayeux filed suit against her parish priest and the Diocese of Baton Rouge, but the case has gotten nowhere as the courts mulled the competing claims of state and church law.
The case revolves around what Mayeux told Father Jeff Bayhi during confession. The diocese has maintained that the confidentiality of the confessional should prevent her from testifying about it, but a state Court of Appeal panel ruled last week that she can’t be gagged.
The vote was only 2-1, but this should have been a clear-cut issue. It would be a strange justice system that allowed defendants to evade legal liability simply by asserting the supremacy of their own doctrine.
Bayhi, being sworn to secrecy under pain of excommunication, will not be able to contradict what Mayeux says in court. But that is hardly reason enough to deny an aggrieved parishioner the right to speak and seek redress. We have judges and juries to weigh the truth of testimony.
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