FLORIDA
Reason.com [Blog]
June 15, 2018
By Eugene Volokh
The Florida Evidence Code apparently requires clergy to testify about confessions to them, if the penitent allows them to do so — but Catholic doctrine forbids any such testimony, regardless of the penitent’s wishes. Which should prevail?
To my knowledge, all American states have an evidentiary rule under which clergy can generally refuse to testify about confessions, if they believe such confessions to be confidential. (The confessions are often called “penitential communications,” to stress that they need to be Catholic-style confessions.) But the Florida Evidence Code apparently treats this as primarily a right of the penitent; thus, if the penitent says she would like the clergy member to testify, the clergy member can be ordered to do so.
The Catholic Church, though, apparently takes a different view: It believes the clergy member cannot reveal things said in the confessional, regardless of whether the penitent wants them revealed. Here’s how this played out in today’s Florida Court of Appeals decision in Ronchi v. State.
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