Americans *used* to have a doctor-patient privilege. That is entirely gone now, what with the HIPAA and HITECH acts.
Now the government is challenging the privilege of clergy and supplicant. So the future of American liberty is now riding on the back of this Catholic priest.
Without hesitation he should go to jail, not even “consider options”, but with his diocese and the Catholic church, and other churches, he should be openly defiant.
In doing so, what he does by going to jail is more important to his faith than performing his priestly duties. But his diocese should rally every Catholic in the state to challenge this abuse by the courts. For if the state wins, the sacrament of confession in its current form is forfeit.
I agree. The sanctity and secrecy of the confessional should not be violated by goobermint.