The Clergy Penitent Privilege, David Steel, WSJ, June 15, 2012

A one on one confession to a priest prevents a prosecutor from using a confession due to the rule called the clergy penitent privilege. Back in 1827, English reformer Jeremy Bentham (who was more often a critic of relgion than a defender) warned that compelling priests to tell what they learned through confessions would be an order to violate what by them is numbered amongst the most sacred of religious duties . By the 1920s most states had adopted the clerical privilege, often showing as much solicitude for the penitent as for the priest or pastor. Unless the person confessing or confiding waives the privilege as the New York provision puts it, a clergyman, or other minister of any religion or duly accredited Christian Science practitioner, shall not be allowed to disclose a confession or confidence made to him in his professional character as spiritual advisor.

The privilege comes with the very steep cost that some wrongdoers may go free if their confession can't be used. But a wrongdoer may be more willing to confess if confessions are protected, in which case the spiritual adviser or the penitent's own conscience may encourage him to face up to his wrongdoing voluntarily.

Almost the only exception to the clergy-penitent privilege is for child abuse. Every state requires professionals, often including clergy, to report evidence of child abuse. But the requirements are aimed at abuse by a parent or guardian; they do not appear to cover the murder of a child by a stranger.


The Rev. Michael P. Orsi (Ave Maria School of Law, Naples), states that a priest is bound to secrecy under the pain of excommunication if he breaks the sacramental seal of confession which is imposed on him in the ritual of penance. Priests have given their lives rather than divulge what was revealed in confession. Any updating of this time-honored religious accomodation is not only a theological impossibility but would be an unprecedented intrusion into our religious freedom.

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