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Louisiana’s Supreme Court has ruled that a priest may be compelled to testify as to what he heard in the confessional in 2008 concerning an abuse case. But the priest, Fr Jeff Bayhi, faces automatic excommunication if he breaks the seal of the confessional. But he also could face jail if found to be in contempt of the court should he refuse to testify.

In the case, a girl who was 14 in 2008 said she told her parish priest – Fr Bayhi, parish priest of St John the Baptist Parish in Zachary – in the confessional that she was abused by a now-dead lay member of the parish.

The girl’s parents sued Fr Bayhi and the Diocese of Baton Rouge for failing to report the abuse. The parents won at the district court level about compelling the priest to testify, but lost in Louisiana’s First Circuit Court of Appeals, before the state’s highest court reversed and vacated the appellate court’s decision.

“As you know, one of the great sacraments of healing in the Church is the sacrament of reconciliation/Confession. It has given hope and comfort to all Catholics throughout the centuries and continues to do so today,” Fr Bayhi said this week.

Father James Thomas smirked as he read the news report and sighed.
He was tired and really wanted to sleep after a busy Saturday of hearing many confessions. He removed his purple stole, his black cassock and black trousers. He was now in his white underwear and black socks. He stood akimbo and gazed at the framed Italian cheval mirror beside his bed. An image flashed behind him. It was the image of a bearded man hanging from the ceiling. The news would be he had committed suicide and the note on his bed was enough evidence that he was too ashamed to continue living after raping his only daughter. And nobody would know it was homicide. The society would be safer without his latest victim. He strangled him and then hung his corpse from the ceiling. The brute was too shocked to believe that the same priest he had confessed his terrible sin to was going to kill him.
Who would be next?
He had a long list.



© Orikinla Osinachi. 2014. No reproduction in any format of media without the authorization and permission of the author and copyright owner.

This is so going to be thrilling. Pls more updates.

Iolite: This is so going to be thrilling. Pls more updates.

I will as I develop the plots.

What's the settings of the story? with careful plot development, it'd be intriguing.

A very nice introduction. Well done, sir.

LarrySun: What's the settings of the story? with careful plot development, it'd be intriguing.

A very nice introduction. Well done, sir.

The quoted intro from a true news report and the response of Father James Thomas to the report shows that it is happening in America and in the present 21st century. But I have not made up my mind on the city in the US.
It is a crime thriller and I have to go through real life crime reports to be able to develop credible plots.

following jeje, i love dis
welldone sir

Orikinla:

The quoted intro from a true news report and the response of Father James Thomas to the report shows that it is happening in America and in the present 21st century. But I have not made up my mind on the city in the US.
It is a crime thriller and I have to go through real life crime reports to be able to develop credible plots.

It's supposed to be a fiction, right? If it's, I wonder why a real report has to be created.

LarrySun:
It's supposed to be a fiction, right? If it's, I wonder why a real report has to be created.

It is allowed in fiction and shows that the story is based of the realities of the time.

Orikinla:

It is allowed in fiction and shows that the story is based of the realities of the time.


Okay. Keeping my fingers crossed.

Waiting!

AudreyTimms: Waiting!

I will not rush.

Orikinla:

I will not rush.

Great. I don't go for feeble plots. Carefully plan your story.

Orikinla:

I will not rush.

. No problem dear. I hv my own writing 2 kip me busy sef bt b sure u hv a follower in me weneva u r gud and ready. Cheers!

I updated this story recently, but the post seems to have been removed or what? And I was updating it right on Nairaland.
**********

Father James Thomas was sitting in his mahogany armchair with his elbows resting on his Harmony reading desk and sipping a cup of coffee whilst reading from sheets of white paper. He had avoided the Saturday vigil, because he had a date with Ms. Henrietta Morgan. His next target. A shameless adulterer who had wrecked many marriages and left the wives of her lovers heart broken. In fact, one of them Mrs. Gwendolyn Jumoke Raymond took her own life after her cheating husband beat her up for daring to attack Ms. Morgan two Sundays ago. The Nigerian woman was a devoted member of the Community of the Beatitudes in his parish and never missed any mass no matter the weather, except only when she was ill. But she always made sure her white husband, a middle class mortgage broker brought their two lovely kids. Deborah, the beautiful 10 year old girl who often smiled with glints in her brown eyes like her father and Washington, their 7 year old son who would always remind him of his mother, because he was like a male copy of his black and beautiful mother. Her tragic death was what provoked him to finally decide to put an end to the adulterous escapades of the Jezebel. He always loved to read before his missions. Reading calmed his nerves. Especially reading classic thrillers of historical fiction.
If we don't get rid of evil doers, their evils will never stop. And the only way to stop their evils is to get rid of the evil doers. He smirked as he continued reading. One hour more and he would be on his way. It was a cold night and only two weeks to Easter.

The Rubicon Triangle

3/31/2013.

St. Peter's Basilica, Rome.
Easter Sunday Mass.
It was during the chanting of Tu Es Petrus by the Sistine Chapel Choir when the call came. Father Lorenzo Visintin, O.S.B glanced at the message on his cellphone.
He must leave immediately for the Chiesa di Sant’Anselmo all’Aventino in the Cavalieri di Malta square, in the rione Ripa. As he hurriedly rose to his feet, his phone slipped from his left hand and dropped to the floor of the pew attracting the attention of the other monks and nuns nearby. He quickly picked it up and bent over to the monk nearest to him and whispered into his right ear. Then he left after making the sign of the cross and bowing to the altar as Pope Francis performing the Elevation of the Host and saying Ecce Agnus Dei. Ecce qui tollit peccata mundi (Behold the Lamb of God. Behold him who takes away the sins of the world).

Brotherhood of the Labarum of Constantine I was founded by Emperor Constantine himself in remembrance of his unforgettable encounter with Jesus Christ that gave him victory over Maxentius in the famous Battle of the Milvian Bridge on October 28, 312 . The monks always had a vigil on ever October 28 at the Arch of Constantine situated between the Colosseum and the Palatine Hill, one of the Seven Hills of Rome.
The Brotherhood of 28 monks opened every meeting with the solemn recitation of the Nicene Creed. Each one must come to the meeting wearing a neck chain with a pendant of the labarum and greeted each other with "In hoc signo vinces", meaning In this sign you shall conquer, being the message Emperor Constantine saw during his divine encounter; when he looked up to the sun and saw a cross of light above it, and with it the Greek words "ἐν τούτῳ νίκα" (In this, conquer).
The Chi-Rho sign and the words were engraved in gold in the middle of the circle they always stood to recite the Nicene Creed before and after their meetings.
There was only one head leading the meetings of the brother in Latin and he was the abbot of Sant'Anselmo di Aventino.

“It is about to hatch ,” he whispered to them as they ended the recitation of the creed. The others gasped and gaped at him and exchanged glances.
“When and where?” Father Lorenzo Visintin asked.
“We shall be told on October 28,” The Abbot replied.
That was all and their meeting ended..
Abbey of St Maria del Monte in Cesena.

Okay. A typical Jack the Ripper on the loose.

Nice one.

*But I thought it ought to be 'vigil' instead of 'night vigil', and I don't seem to get the significance of the sign in the quote.*

LarrySun: Okay. A typical Jack the Ripper on the loose.

Nice one.

*But I thought it ought to be 'vigil' instead of 'night vigil', and I don't seem to get the significance of the sign in the quote.*

Thanks Larry.
I am writing on the spot on Nairaland. I will do proper editing later.

Moving smoothly