# Do priests hearing confession have an obligation to report serious crimes?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-priests-hearing-confession-have-an-obligation-to-report-serious-crimes/514555>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 21, 2009, 1:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-priests-hearing-confession-have-an-obligation-to-report-serious-crimes/514555 "2009-10-21T01:23:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 5

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**Author:** ![The\_Second\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@The\_Second\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Second_Stone)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-priests-hearing-confession-have-an-obligation-to-report-serious-crimes/514555/81 "2009-10-24T05:57:45Z")

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Attorney client privilege in California is as strong for confession of past crimes. Future crimes must be turned in. There was a case a year or two ago where a lawyer had heard a confession from his client where another man was serving a life sentence for the crime. Only many years after the client died had he been allowed by the client to tell.

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**Author:** ![williambaskerville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f14d63/32.png) [@williambaskerville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/williambaskerville)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 7:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-priests-hearing-confession-have-an-obligation-to-report-serious-crimes/514555/82 "2009-10-24T07:56:25Z")

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> [@Bricker](#):
>
> Interestingly, there is a sin which a priest may not, by law, absolve, although even then there’s an out of sorts.
> 
> A priest may not absolve his own partner in a sin against the Sixth Commandment… unless there is the grave danger of death.

That exemption intrigues me. Do you have any insight into the rationale behind it?

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**Author:** ![Mk\_VII](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Mk\_VII](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mk_VII)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-priests-hearing-confession-have-an-obligation-to-report-serious-crimes/514555/83 "2009-10-24T13:42:41Z")

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The plot premise of Hitchcock’s _I Confess_ turns on this inviolability of the confessional.

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**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\
**Post date:** [October 24, 2009, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-priests-hearing-confession-have-an-obligation-to-report-serious-crimes/514555/84 "2009-10-24T14:16:16Z")

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> [@williambaskerville](#):
>
> That exemption intrigues me. Do you have any insight into the rationale behind it?

I imagine it’s to guard against what would otherwise be a temptation for a priest to ease his way into an affair by assuring his partner that even if they did commit adultery, he could absolve her of the sin.

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