                                 CODE OF VIRGINIA

COMMUNICATIONS BETWEEN MINISTERS OF RELIGION AND PERSONS THEY COUNSEL OR ADVISE
(SUPREME COURT RULE 2:503 DERIVED IN PART FROM THIS SECTION) (§ 19.2-271.3)

No regular minister, priest, rabbi or accredited practitioner over the age of
eighteen years, of any religious organization or denomination usually referred
to as a church, shall be required in giving testimony as a witness in any
criminal action to disclose any information communicated to him by the accused
in a confidential manner, properly entrusted to him in his professional capacity
and necessary to enable him to discharge the functions of his office according
to the usual course of his practice or discipline, where such person so
communicating such information about himself or another is seeking spiritual
counsel and advice relative to and growing out of the information so imparted.

HISTORY: 1985, c. 570.