The Holy See submitted to the Working Group of the Whole an amendment asserting that "the Court shall respect and observe the classic privileges on confidentiality relative to doctor-patient, lawyer-client and priest-penitent relationships".

That proposal was in turn supported by Syria, which added the idea that "the Court shall respect and observe the duties relating to confidentiality contained in national laws", including those applying to the relationships spelled out by the Holy See.

The inclusion of such language may well fit in with the legal systems of many key nations, including the United States, where the Supreme Court Thursday re-affirmed the lawyer-client privilege and asserted that it would not customarily end even after the death of the client. 

The US ruling was in response to a move by special independent prosecutor Kenneth Starr, who sought to subpoena the lawyer of a deceased White House aide, Vincent Foster, in his investigation of several scandals linked to President Bill Clinton. But the Supreme Court's rebuff, in asserting the traditions of lawyer-client privilege, have ended Starr's efforts to retrieve the Foster notes.