Subject to Section 912, a penitent, whether or not a party, has a privilege to refuse to disclose, and to prevent another from disclosing, a penitential communication if he or she claims the privilege.
Cal. Evid. Code § 1033
Clergy Penitent Privileges
Applied in 6 court decisions — leading case Roman Catholic Archbishop v. Superior Court (2005)
Most recently applied in State v. Price (October 2025)
Amended by Stats. 2002, Ch. 806, Sec. 22
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: California Legislative Information. Reproduced from public-domain California statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.