NCR interviews James O'Toole, whose new book, For I Have Sinned, details the growth and eventual decline of confession in the United States, prompting questions about the sacrament's future.

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 ...

A proposed law in Arizona could see priests facing felony charges if they fail to break the seal of confession after learning ...

The state law, in Washington, applies to all religions but has outraged Catholics in particular. The Justice Department is investigating. By Ruth Graham Ruth Graham covers faith and religion. The ...

A new bill before the Arizona House of Representatives could force priests and pastors to break their seal of confession. The ...

Officials in Washington state have agreed to back off a controversial effort to force priests there to violate the seal of confession as part of a mandatory abuse reporting law. A motion filed in ...

Ben Johnson is senior reporter and editor at The Washington Stand. A newly enacted law forcing priests to reveal the details of their members’ private confessions under penalty of fine or imprisonment ...

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

The Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington over its recent law mandating that priests must violate the seal of confession if child abuse is learned about during the ...

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