The Priest-Penitent Privilege is a legal right that protects the confidentiality of communications made between a priest (or any similar clergy member of another church) and a person seeking forgiveness and moral advice. There are a many of misconceptions people have about it. First of all, it belongs to a larger category of confidentiality privileges, many of them very old. Marital communications privileges, Physician-Patient Privilege, Attorney-Client Privilege, and more recently things like rape crisis counselor privilege and even Accountant-Client Privilege. The Attorney-Client Privilege is the oldest one, according to Steven Gifis, in his Law Dictionary. And it comes also from the 6th Amendment right to an attorney and legal counsel. The right to attorney-client privilege is absolute for things you've done in the past. But it does not include things you tell your attorney you are planning on doing in the future. Also, as happened with one of Donald Trump's lawyers, if you get you attorney involved in your crime, he will take action. And you will lose that privilege, because that creates what is called a conflict of interest for your attorney. But once you confess to any crime, any good lawyer will be concerned about the crime you did, especially if it is a serious one. And he will first tell you what you did was illegal and advise you to never do it again. Then he will try his best to minimize the harm and damage caused by your crime, including mounting a credible legal defense, if your case goes to trial. Some people think that the Attorney-Client Privilege leads to more crime. It does not. What it does, Gifis goes on to say, is lead to full and frank communication with your lawyer, and the sound legal and moral advice that follows. I was surprised myself to learn recently that most crimes, including sex crimes, are rarely repeated. And some people, including some Supreme Court justices, think the fact an attorney can't reveal the crime his client did will in itself lead directly to another, similar crime, in the future. It will not. In all of human history that has simply never happened, not even once. The right to priest-privilege was recognized in England until the protestant reformation of Henry VIII. But in the United States it comes from the First Amendment guarantee of religious freedom. And in the U.S., it is considered an important aspect of religious freedom, and individual privacy too. Although recent court rulings have begun to take back many of religious freedoms, including this one. One of the most controversial issues that comes up with it is the subject of the clergy and child sexual abuse. In some states, clergy are also required to report any child abuse. But at the same time, when a person confesses their sins to a clergyman, it is considered absolutely privileged. Again, that is only for things that happened in the past and probably will never happen again. If the abuse is ongoing, that is a different matter anyways, as I explained above. Also, there is a difference between the just interacting with clergy, even in a religious setting, and confessing your sins to them, and receiving absolution.
