Lawmakers in multiple U.S. states in recent years have moved to require priests to violate the seal of confession as part of ...

The proposed law reignites national debate over the balance between child protection and religious freedom. By requiring ...

Explore the implications of the Arizona bill requiring clergy to break the seal of confession to report child abuse allegations.

NCR interviews James O'Toole, whose new book, For I Have Sinned, details the growth and eventual decline of confession in the ...

While clergy are often mandatory reporters outside of the confessional, long-standing legal precedent in the U.S. recognizes the religious freedom of confessors and penitents to be exempt from those ...

Confession, the Catholic and Orthodox practice of listing one’s sins in the presence of a priest who then offers absolution and is sworn to secrecy under pain of eternal damnation, has long been a ...

In “The Guilty Vicarage,” an essay on detective fiction, W.H. Auden argues that the most successful detective novels take ...

Roman Catholic priests in Washington cannot be required to report child abuse or neglect they learn of in confession, a federal judge ruled Friday. U.S. District Court Chief Judge David G. Estudillo ...

OLYMPIA, Wash. – The State of Washington reached an agreement with Catholic priests and the Department of Justice to allow Catholic priests to maintain secrecy while performing the Sacrament of ...

In recent years, some Catholics have been concerned by pushes from governments in locations such as Louisiana and Australia who challenge the secrecy of the sacrament of confession, asking that ...