I tend to support confidentiality of confessions made to priests or other "spiritual" counsellors.
However, I would only support the confidentiality of a confession made to the elders, not the
confidentiality of a judicial committee:
Statements by a man accused of child molestation to elders during a judicial committee are not covered by the penitent-clergy privilege, because the committee was not required by the organization's practices to keep the statements a secret, according to Judge Raymond Guadagni's decision.
The committee had to share information about potential child-molestation cases with its headquarters, the ruling said.
California already dealt with this issue, and the WTS lost, hence the settlement before revealing
what they knew.
Even in the case of a member coming forward and confessing to one or two elders, they must
follow the law on reporting. (The law should clearly be written that they MUST come forward and
report knowledge of the crime.) Only what was said in confidentiality would remain that way, but
any knowledge of evidence should be reported.
If the elder(s) break that confidentiality IN A COUNSEL SESSION by reporting to Headquarters or
to lawyers about what was revealed, then they should have to report who they spoke to, and that
lawyer or GB representative or whoever could be forced to testify.
Even though we know their reasons for doing things are to protect the organization ahead of the
victims, the core of the clergy confession privilege is a good rule. The article mentions that it
encourages the person to come forward and confess to his spiritual advisor, then that person can
offer to help him come forward to the police. It's just another thing that WTS has warped and is
trying to take advantage of.
Edited to add: And as Blondie points out, they claim there is no clergy class in JW's, so there
really cannot be any privilege in that religion.