In Doe v. Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas, (TX App, Aug. 11, 2021), a Texas state appellate court held that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine requires dismissal of a suit alleging that a Catholic diocese committed fraud when it failed to follow its own internal policies for responding to clergy sex-abuse claims after plaintiff reported that he had been sexually abused by a Diocesan priest. The court said in part:
[A] court would have to evaluate whether ... the Dallas Diocese implemented its policy under the canonical meanings of "minor," "sexual abuse," and "vulnerable adult." This would necessitate a secular investigation into the Dallas Diocese's understanding of those terms.... Such an inquiry would cause a court to evaluate whether the Dallas Diocese properly applied canon law and "interlineate its own views" of canonical terms....
Furthermore, in the context of a religious organization's choices in investigating and regulating its formal leaders and people ordained for religious duties, "any investigation would necessarily put to question the internal decision making of a church judicatory body."...
