Religious institutions are entitled to decide when their doctrines require them to keep secret a confession made by a congregant about child abuse and cannot be second-guessed by judges, the Arizona Supreme Court ruled Thursday.

The religious institutions — and not a court — also get to decide who beyond actual members of the "clergy'' are exempt from reporting requirements, the justices concluded.

Most immediately, that means the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and two of its bishops do not have to stand trial for failing to tell authorities that a Bisbee man was sexually abusing his young children.

But the extensive opinion written by Justice John Lopez also creates a new binding precedent that will affect all future cases in which churches, synagogues, mosques and other religious groups get to claim immunity based solely on their own interpretation of what their faith requires and not what a jury might decide.