High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The priest–penitent privilege, also known as the clergy privilege, clergy–penitent privilege, confessional privilege, and ecclesiastical privilege, is an application of the principle of privileged communication that protects the contents of communications between a member of the clergy and a penitent, who shares information in confidence. It stems from the principle of confessional privilege. It is a distinct concept from that of confidentiality (see non-disclosure agreement).