U.S. Supreme Court will not hear Baton Rouge Catholic confession case

By Emily Lane
Times-Picayune
January 20, 2015

http://www.nola.com/crime/baton-rouge/index.ssf/2015/01/catholic_confession_case_baton.html

The U.S. Supreme Court will not not review a petition by the Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge attempting to block child from testifying about what was said during confession.

The Supreme Court of the United States will not hear a petition by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge regarding a civil lawsuit the diocese says threatens the confidentiality of the confession, according to the SCOTUS blog. 

The petition seeks to block a child from testifying in a civil suit against the church and priest about what she said in confession. The live blog, which reports on orders from the U.S. Supreme Court, reported Tuesday (Jan. 20) morning that the high court denied writ of certiorari to hear the case. 

The Louisiana Supreme Court's ruling, rendered in May 2014, 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 original case involves a then-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. 

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 state Supreme 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.