Confessor

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CONFESSOR, evid. A priest of some Christian sect, who receives an account of the sins of his people, and undertakes to give them absolution of their sins.
     2. The general rule on the subject of giving evidence of confidential communications is, that the privilege is confined to counsel, solicitors, and attorneys, and the interpreter between the counsel and the client. Vide Confidential Communications. Contrary to this general rule, it has been decided in New York, that a priest of the Roman Catholic denomination could not be compelled to divulge secrets which he had received in auricular confession. 2 City Hall Rec. 80, n.; Joy on Conf. Sec. 4, p. 49. See Bouv. Inst. n. 3174 and note.

A Law Dictionary, Adapted to the Constitution and Laws of the United States. By John Bouvier. Published 1856.
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Instead of withdrawing from his earlier confidence regarding his capacity to exact vengeance on those he considers damnable, however, Hamlet responds to Polonius's death in the final act of the play by reinforcing his role as an avenger and father confessor. In the final act, Hamlet may accept the orthodox Christian position on the inscrutability of the "special providence" of God; but, like his early modern contemporaries, he acts with assurance regarding the damnation and salvation of those around him based on external evidence (5.2.215-16).
This interchange places Hamlet in the role of father confessor loosening Laertes' sins through a deathbed absolution.
Hamlet adopts and maintains the role of father confessor as part of an effort to validate his obligation to avenge the crimes against his father and himself.
The figure of the father confessor, too, became a vestigial reminder of the traditional religion.
Private confession and the office of father confessor were anachronisms that became more diffused and "internalised fully" by the middle of the seventeenth century.
Even though Hamlet reveals a general Christian desire to bring his mother to repentance, I would argue that he assumes the role of father confessor intent on extracting the consciences of others in order to assure himself not only of their guilt or innocence, but also to achieve support in his role as avenger.
"Try what repentance can": Hamlet, confession, and the extraction of interiority
In these powerfully loaded scenes, Alfieri functions as the obstinate longshoreman's father confessor, without the sin ever being named.
A burning 'Bridge'
Although he is a kind of "father confessor" to them all, he is not--as he points out--a social worker.
Gipsy summer: Concordia cares for Sofia's homeless and unwanted
I stoically endured the role of Father Confessor for a good few months.
When merry secrets go around
He was a bit like a father confessor for the council."
Obituaries: Clr Geoffrey Wainwright; Death of public transport campaigner
Are today's inside claims administrators metaphorical surgeons, judges and father confessors?
Adjuster licensing and professionalism--Part 1: licensing alone does not make adjusting a profession--otherwise dogs and bicycles would rate professional status
With over-mighty father confessors, concealed deaths and lethal faction fights over the still-warm corpse, the Tudors died as excitingly as they lived.
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