Louisiana high court upholds seal of confession

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The Louisiana Supreme Court has ruled that priests are not required to report child abuse when they hear about the abuse in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
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“A priest when administering the sacrament of confession has no duty to report any confidential communications made during the confession that, by the tenets of the Roman Catholic Church, he is authorized to hear and is also duty bound to keep confidential,” the court ruled on October 28.
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The ruling comes in a long-running case in which Father Jeff Bayhi, a priest of the Diocese of Baton Rouge, had been directed to testify about what a 14-year-old allegedly told him in Confession. The young woman has said that she told Father Bayhi about being molested by a member of his parish. Father Bayhi had refused to testify, citing the inviolability of the confessional seal.
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catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=29784
 
This case started over two years ago, glad to see they are done with it and the outcome is a good one.
 
A good conclusion to this case. Though I wonder if the outcome would have been the same had it been in another state. Hopefully it doesn’t come up again anytime soon.
 
I wonder if MOST Catholics are aware that WE are all bound by the seal of the confessional, by this I mean if you happen to overhear someones else confession the Church REQUIRES that we/lay people are also bound by the seal.

Herculees
 
A good movie to see is I Confess by Alfred Hitchcock. One of my favorites.
 
Over 1/4 of the population of Louisiana is Catholic. If they’d ruled against upholding a seal, the state would lost a lot of tax revenue.
 
deaconjohnO said:
Another reason for anonymous confession.
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It’s a good point actually. Eventually I could see the compelling interest of safety of children from abusers being put above the seal of confession if it’s not anonymous. As it is I’m having a discussion regarding this very ruling with a non-Christian. He doesn’t understand at all why Catholic priests get a pass on say reporting child abuse they learn about in confession when therapists for example do not.

I’ve tried to use the analogy that a priest and confessing Catholic are akin to an Attorney and their Client, and that in a similar situation an attorney would have no obligation to report the crime (and depending on circumstance would face discipline if they did so), but he’s having none of it. For him as an atheist he doesn’t understand why Catholics and their “pretend man in the sky” should get a pass since it’s really just a person making themselves feel better by talking akin to a therapist and patient. He doesn’t buy that it has the same weight as an attorney/client relationship since to his mind a priest isn’t providing any benefit to society that necessitates the secrecy.

Frankly for me as a non-Catholic it’s an interesting quandary to find myself in actually defending the Catholic position even if I don’t necessarily agree with it as an Anglican. Of course an anon confession for Catholics would definitely solve that problem just as group confession (or lack of needing to confess at all) does for Anglicans and/or Protestants.
 
I’d just like to thank you for trying to defend the Catholic position despite the fact that you are Anglican. I’m just wondering if you knew that at one time in history the Anglican Church also had the Sacrament of Confession as a sacrament.

Herculees

QUOTE=Padres1969;14262196]It’s a good point actually. Eventually I could see the compelling interest of safety of children from abusers being put above the seal of confession if it’s not anonymous. As it is I’m having a discussion regarding this very ruling with a non-Christian. He doesn’t understand at all why Catholic priests get a pass on say reporting child abuse they learn about in confession when therapists for example do not.

I’ve tried to use the analogy that a priest and confessing Catholic are akin to an Attorney and their Client, and that in a similar situation an attorney would have no obligation to report the crime (and depending on circumstance would face discipline if they did so), but he’s having none of it. For him as an atheist he doesn’t understand why Catholics and their “pretend man in the sky” should get a pass since it’s really just a person making themselves feel better by talking akin to a therapist and patient. He doesn’t buy that it has the same weight as an attorney/client relationship since to his mind a priest isn’t providing any benefit to society that necessitates the secrecy.

Frankly for me as a non-Catholic it’s an interesting quandary to find myself in actually defending the Catholic position even if I don’t necessarily agree with it as an Anglican. Of course an anon confession for Catholics would definitely solve that problem just as group confession (or lack of needing to confess at all) does for Anglicans and/or Protestants.
 
Herculees said:
I’d just like to thank you for trying to defend the Catholic position despite the fact that you are Anglican. I’m just wondering if you knew that at one time in history the Anglican Church also had the Sacrament of Confession as a sacrament.

Herculees
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Actually many Anglican parishes still have the Sacrament Rite of Confession in the Catholic style (ie: one on one with the priest). In point of fact my own parish is one such Anglican parish. Confession in the Anglican Church remains one of the 7 sacraments just as in Catholicism, albeit not one of the two major sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist) but rather one of the other 5 Sacramental Rites.

So you can see why there’s a little self interest in my defending the Catholic position even if according to Anglican teaching one on one confession is not necessarily required as we do also utilize group confession and absolution (typically as part of our mass).
 
Padres1969 said:
Actually many Anglican parishes still have the Sacrament Rite of Confession in the Catholic style (ie: one on one with the priest). In point of fact my own parish is one such Anglican parish. Confession in the Anglican Church remains one of the 7 sacraments just as in Catholicism, albeit not one of the two major sacraments (Baptism and Eucharist) but rather one of the other 5 Sacramental Rites.

So you can see why there’s a little self interest in my defending the Catholic position even if according to Anglican teaching one on one confession is not necessarily required as we do also utilize group confession and absolution (typically as part of our mass).
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It is good to know that some Anglican/Episcopalian parishes recognize Confession as a Sacrament in their church. In the Catholic Church we have a penitential rite in which we confess to almighty God and to our brothers and sisters (in Christ) that we have sinned: in our thought and in our words, in what we have done, and in what we have failed to do; through our own fault. We, therefor, ask the blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and our brothers and sisters, to pray for each of us to the Lord our God." The use of this prayer during the Mass forgives us of our venial sins, however, it does NOT forgive us of mortal (serious) sins. Confession in the Catholic Church is encouraged in for venial sins as it increases grace to work in our lives. In the Catholic Church it is only REQUIRED to go to Confession to confess mortal (serious) sins. Some people especially if they do not go regularly to confession MIGHT not be able to discern if they are in a state of grace or whether they are in a state of mortal (serious) sin. The Church therefore encourages us to go to Confession at least once a year.
 
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