Dead man's confession

Philosophy is definitely an interesting class, as I sat there this morning we started to discus moral value, right from wrong. We also discussed priests, and heaven/hell. Now when we jumped on this topic, I couldn't help but question my own faith. Not in the sense of do I believe in God, but more so the reason behind confessionals, and their moral sense.

Recently I watched a movie with a plot/story line along those similar to The Saw series. This one in particular was called 9 dead. Just so you can get the jist of the story, I will fill you in. Now keep in mind this isn't about the movie, it had just sparked a thought in my head. 

A man takes 9 individuals, and holds them hostage. He tells them he will kill one person every 10 minutes if they do not figure out what they all have in common. The individuals are a store owner, a priest, a lawyer, a pimp, an ex con, a ex gang member, a police officer, an insurance agent, and a gay rapist. Now these clearly have nothing in common but in some way shape or form they are all linked together. Now after 4 deaths, they team up and work to uncover the story. In the end they figure out the linkage, because the con didn't go to jail for his crime the son of the man holding them hostage did. All cause the store owner put the wrong man at the scene, even though the lawyer knew this she planted the clues with the help of the officer. The con, bought a gun to rod the store from the gang member. The motive behind the robbery was to pay back the pimp. After the robbery and the case the con went to confession, and was heard by the priest. Because the wrong person went to jail, the son was rapped by the gay rapist and got AIDS. After serving time, he was on his death bed suffering from the AIDS, he was turned down by the insurance agent and died. Moral of the story behind the movie is they all lied for their own selfish reasons.

Before everyone started to die, the priest refused to admit the linkage early on due to the rules of the confessional. If the priest would've possible admitted this linkage early on he could've prevented the death of these 8 other individuals. 

So my question is, is it morally right for the priest in this situation to have kept quiet, even though he could've prevented the death of the other individuals? 

Now here is a link in which the confessional's rules are discussed: http://www.catholiceducation.org/articles/religion/re0059.html

But this still doesn't explain why these rules are held to such a high standard EVEN if it were to save the lives of others. Isn't it morally right to just confess such things if it's motive was to save the lives of other people?