Washington Law Will Force Catholic Priests to Violate Sanctity of the Confessional or Go to Jail

<![CDATA[History, tradition, and the law all recognize the sanctity of the Roman Catholic sacrament of confession. The priest-penitent privilege in America dates to 1813 in a New York case, People v. Phillips, where a court refused to compel a priest to reveal what a man accused of stealing jewelry told him during confession. ]]>