The 1953 Alfred Hitchcock film "I Confess," based on an earlier play, features a priest suspected of murder. He's innocent, and has even heard the murderer's confession—but cannot clear his own name.

It’s a practice that is centuries old: confessing one’s sins to a trusted clergy member. But could the protection these confessions receive through clergy-penitent privilege be aiding admitted child ...

Since January 2019, Fr. Jim Connell of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee has been urging state legislators around the country to repeal clergy-penitent privilege in mandatory reporting laws that exempt ...

The Washington Capitol is pictured in Olympia April 11, 2020. Washington state's Catholic bishops asked the federal court to block a new state law they say forces priests to choose between breaking ...

The Holy Father addressed about 800 priests and seminarians March 25 at the end of an annual course on the seal of confession and the internal forum. Pope Francis goes to confession during a penance ...

The laws in seven states now make it mandatory for clergy to report child sexual abuse even when it is learned only through a religious confession. A total of 24 other states also list clergy as ...

St. John Nepomucene Catholic Church is seen on a New York City street in this May 2, 2019, photo. The church was named for the 14th-century Bohemian saint, considered the first martyr of the seal of ...

A priest and a penitent demonstrate how a confession is conducted at a Catholic church in Salem, Ore., in this May 3, 2019, file photo. (Credit: Chaz Muth/CNS.) Listen NEW YORK – After the Washington ...

Although the Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere, a Rome neighborhood, is open March 18, 2020, the confessionals are empty because they do not allow the priest and penitent to stay 3 feet apart.

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