Why do catholics confess to a priest?

Question

I've always kinda wondered why they have to do this. Or if they even have to. Since Jesus died on the cross doesn't that mean that we can just pray directly to him and confess our sins to him. I know that scripture "confess your sins to one another and pray for one another so that you may be healed." But to me that would seem like confessing to your fellow christians, not just a priest. I've never been properly educated on what their belief on this is. Anyone willig to offer any insight would be appreciated...thanks!

Answer 1

I was taught as a child that I was actually confessing to God, the priest was there sort of like a phone operator to connect me to God and relay to me God's absolution. I always walked into that confessional feeling a bit uneasy, and always walked out feeling like I had a new lease on life. I still confess my faults and shortcomings to a select few confidants, but haven't been to a Catholic confessional in years. Confessing something to God is a good start, but getting some feedback from somebody you trust and has good advice is of incalculable value. If I'm not mistaken, I don't think that you have to be a Catholic to go to confession. Some people might disagree on that, but I'm sure you could find a priest that would listen to you if you aren't a Catholic. I shopped around until I found one I liked. Look at all the people who pay thousands of dollars to talk to psychologists, therapists, and counselors. Look at all the people going onto Jerry Springer and confessing. I've gotten some very good advice from priests and it didn't cost me a cent. Admitting it to God is one thing, admitting it to another human being, and especially hearing it from your own mouth is quite another. I highly recommend it.

Answer 2

John 14:6 Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Matthew 18:20 For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst. Matthew 18:19 "Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. James 5:16 Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. So, no you can't go to God and confess your sins without going through Jesus, and Jesus tells us that it takes TWO people, not just one person confessing their sins quietly to Him. Confession meets the requirements that Jesus gives us, in that two people are asking for the forgiveness of the confessors sins. In that situation, unlike your situation, Jesus is actually present, and what is asked is granted since that is what He promised. There are more points to be made concerning this subject, but I am not in the practice of typing walls of text.

Answer 3

Catholics confess to a priest, the priest tells the sinner what prayers to say such all Our Father, Hail Mary, and so on. The priests tells the sinners what prayers to say and how many to have the sin forgiven, after saying all the prayers you do pause aking for forgiveness from Jesus.

Answer 4

I will tell you i have a catholic friend and i got her into trouble w/ her priest with this one.... It says in the bible that you are to pray on your own, and through jesus, and not out loud so that others can hear what you are saying. ...... It also says "do not say prayers repeatedly like the heathens do" yet the priests will tell you to say so many "hail mary's or our father's" Both of these lines are listed in the bible. I can't remember exactly where now but when i was in 10th grade i had written them down and my catholic friend showed them to her priest and asked why they do things that were against what the bible said. His reply to her was "Who are you to question the authority God has given me, the bishops and the pope?" He then told her SHE was a heathen and she needed to pray for her soul and THEN told her to do like 50 hail mary's..... the very same thing that she was asking about doing when the bible says not to????

Answer 5

John20:22-23 Jesus commissions the Apostles and their sucessors to absolve sin.

Catholicsm teaches that it is jesus himself who does the forgiving



James5 says that Christians should confess theoir sins to each other and not just silently to God and that presbyters'prayers are a font of sins' forgiveness

Answer 6

Catholics don't confess to a priest; they confess to God the Father through the Holy Spirit because the Blood of Jesus Christ has allowed them to do so. Of course you can confess your sins to God directly without someone to intervene but you won't necessarily receive absolution. It is the absolution that makes the Sacrament of Reconciliation (confession) a beautiful thing. The only sins they must go to confession for are mortal sins that are recounted through an examination of conscience...but to confess venial sins is recommend because it helps to form your conscience, fight against evil tendencies, let yourself be healed by Christ and progress in the life of the Spirit. By this they are spurred to be merciful as God is merciful.

-That's in short

God bless+

Answer 7

Jesus commissioned his Apostles after Pentecost to forgive sins.

People used to confess to one another, but it caused gossipping.

By the middle-ages, confession was restricted only to monks.

Since they were mostly all priests, they could be held to silence.

The priest is acting 'in persona Christi' under that original direction.

He is pronouncing God's promised forgiveness through Jesus.

Answer 8

There was a little boy who was afraid of thunder and lightning. One night, as he was sleeping, a violent storm blistered the skies. He awoke terrified, and ran into his parents' bedroom, crying. His mother tried to calm him. "Jimmy, I told you God loves you and is with you. Don't ever be afraid. You are never alone." Jimmy replied, "I know, Mommy, that God loves me and listens to my prayers. But sometimes I need someone with skin!"



We all need "someone with skin." When we have sinned, offending God and His people, the Church, we need to open our hearts to another person..."someone with skin." For Catholics, that "someone with skin" is the priest, ordained by the Church to represent Jesus and the Church herself. "Someone with skin" from whom we can ask God's forgiveness. And hear that it is granted.



In John 20, verse 23, Jesus says to the disciples, "As the Father has sent me so I send you...receive the Holy Spirit. For those whose sins you forgive, they are forgiven; for those whose sins you retain, they are retained." Jesus clearly expected the successors of the disciples, the bishops and priests down through the centuries, to continue His work...to preach, to pray, to forgive our sins when we are truly sorry for our failures.



The New Testament tells early Christians, "confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, and this will cure you (James 5:16)." The admonition is as important today as it was then.



Catholics do not confess sins to a priest instead of to God. We confess to a priest representing God. The prayer of absolution, which the priest prays while administering the sacrament, says "I absolve you from your sin the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit." It is in God's name the priest forgives, not in his own name.

When Catholics receive the sacrament of reconciliation, we have the opportunity not only to be forgiven, but to receive advice from the priest...kind and wise counsel as to how to do better in the future, living the Christian life.



Sin offends not only God, but others. The Body of Christ, the Church, is wounded whenever we sin. (Adultery, anger and racism are obvious examples.)



When the priest speaks the word of absolution, we are forgiven by the Church as well as by God. We are reconciled. Our relationships are healed. The priest can also advise us, offering ways in which we might make up, to some extent, the offenses caused others.

A communal celebration of the sacrament provides a rich opportunity to experience the social nature of sin and forgiveness. At the same time, penitents at these services confess sinfulness and receive absolution privately, protecting confidentiality.



Protestant friends have told me how embarrassing it would be for them to tell in confession the shameful things that they have done. Actually, our priests are trained to reflect the compassion and understanding of Jesus to the sinner. The priest knows that he, too, is a sinner.



How often, for example, have you told a close friend something, very confidential, only to find out later that your confidant then told someone else? A priest, on the other hand, has a sacred trust. He may never tell anyone what someone has told him in the secrecy of the sacrament. Not even if it would save his own life!



It is healthy, spiritually an psychologically, to unburden ourselves in a humble way through this wonderful gift of Jesus to His Church.



Yes, all of us can tell God we are sorry in our hearts. But only the Catholic that has the good sense to confess regularly has the light hearted joy of hearing "someone with skin" say those comforting words, "Your sins are forgiven. Go in peace."

Answer 9

Sections 1441 and 1442 in the Catechism of the Catholic Church:



Only God forgives sins. (Mk 2:7) Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, "The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven." (Mk 2:5-10, Lk 7:48) Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name. (Jn 20:21-23)



Christ has willed that in her prayer and life and action his whole Church should be the sign and instrument of the forgiveness and reconciliation that he acquired for us at the price of his blood. But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the "ministry of reconciliation." (2 Cor 5:18) The apostle is sent out "on behalf of Christ" with "God making his appeal" through him and pleading: "Be reconciled to God." (2 Cor 5:20)

Answer 10

The priest is our closest link to Jesus and the Church. He has the Christ's authority to truly rid us of our sins.

Answer 11

They're not really confessing to the priest. The priest is a conduit to God. Nothing more.



Here's some more info on it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confession

Answer 12

It's considered a priviledge to be able to be absolved by the priest (who is sitting in for God). It's a sacrament that is required before being able to recieve the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist (Holy Communion).



It's the religion I was raised in and ended up ditching after the molestation fiasco. How could they condone what those priests did and cover it up?

Answer 13

I am catholic and the reason is because the church teaches us if you confess all your sins to a priest you go to heaven. And you also have to repent.

Answer 14

I never really understood this ether and i was born and raised catholic. so i have switched to a non denominational christian religion

Answer 15

Some claim that confessing to a priest is not biblical. In John 20, we read of Christ appearing to the disciples on Easter Sunday. He breathed on the apostles giving them the authority to forgive, and not to forgive. This means they had to hear the sins in order to forgive/not forgive. Jesus then says “as the Father has sent me, so I send you”. This means the apostles are to continue Christ’s mission, the essence of which is the forgiveness of sins. In 2 Corinthians, St. Paul describes the apostles as ambassadors of Christ’s work of reconciliation. In the Epistle of James we read that the presbyters (priests) are called to pray for the sick and forgive their sins. Why are priests called to perform this task? Obviously, the priests have an authority that ordinary Christians do not.



It is clear that Christ gave the apostles the power to forgive sins.







The Sacrament of Reconciliation is one of the seven sacraments Christ gave his church. The Sacrament of Reconciliation is also known as the Sacrament of Penance or Confession. This sacrament can set us free from our sins, and from the burden of guilt that comes along with our sins. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation – confession – we are brought back into union with God. Our sins separate and damage our relationship with our Lord, and it is through this most powerful sacrament that our relationship with the Lord is repaired and strengthened. Through the Sacrament of Reconciliation we can walk more closely with the Lord once again, without the burden of our sins weighing us down and distancing our relationship with God.



Some ask why Catholics confess to a priest rather than just going straight to God. Some claim that confessing to a priest is not biblical. But that is not true.



We confess to a priest because that is the way Jesus instituted the sacrament. It is at his command that we confess to one another. When we sin against the Father our sins also affect our Christian family. Confessing sins to a priest is something that was a universal practice and never debated in the Early Church.



Jesus himself was able to heal not only the physically sick, but the spiritually sick as well. Christ had the power to forgive sins (see Matthew 9:1-8; Mark 2:5-12).



He passed on that power to forgive sins in his name to his Apostles.



"Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything for which they are to pray, it shall be granted to them by my heavenly Father." (Matthew 18:18-19)



"Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I sent you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained." (John 20:21-23)



Jesus entrusted his Church with the power of forgiving sins through this most wonderful sacrament. The priest is simply the one who acts in persona Christi (in the person of Christ) in the confessional, but it is our Lord who forgives our sins. The priest grants absolution (sets us free from our sins) using the power Jesus entrusted to his Church. It is through Christ, however, that our sins are forgiven.



St. Paul tells us, "And all this is from God, who has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us." (2 Corinthians 5: 18-20)



Does this mean that we shouldn’t speak and pray directly to God and express sorrow for our sins? Not at all! In fact for daily faults that is exactly what we should be doing. But for more serious offenses, for grave and mortal sins, we must repent and confess through the Sacrament of Reconciliation because that is what Christ commands us to do.





Reconciliation (also known as Confession and Penance): Penance is a Sacrament in which the sins committed after Baptism are forgiven.

Biblical references: Matt 9:2-8; Jn 20:22-23; 2 Cor 5:17-20; James 5:13-16;

Matt 18:18; 1 Jn 5:16

Answer 16

To properly educate yourself you will need to read a little. Here is a good explanation of why.



The Forgiveness of Sins





All pardon for sins ultimately comes from Christ’s finished work on Calvary, but how is this pardon received by individuals? Did Christ leave us any means within the Church to take away sin? The Bible says he gave us two means.



Baptism was given to take away the sin inherited from Adam (original sin) and any sins we personally committed before baptism—sins we personally commit are called actual sins, because they come from our own acts. Thus on the day of Pentecost, Peter told the crowds, "Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38), and when Paul was baptized he was told, "And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on his name" (Acts 22:16). And so Peter later wrote, "Baptism . . . now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Pet. 3:21).



For sins committed after baptism, a different sacrament is needed. It has been called penance, confession, and reconciliation, each word emphasizing one of its aspects. During his life, Christ forgave sins, as in the case of the woman caught in adultery (John 8:1–11) and the woman who anointed his feet (Luke 7:48). He exercised this power in his human capacity as the Messiah or Son of man, telling us, "the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matt. 9:6), which is why the Gospel writer himself explains that God "had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8).



Since he would not always be with the Church visibly, Christ gave this power to other men so the Church, which is the continuation of his presence throughout time (Matt. 28:20), would be able to offer forgiveness to future generations. He gave his power to the apostles, and it was a power that could be passed on to their successors and agents, since the apostles wouldn’t always be on earth either, but people would still be sinning.



God had sent Jesus to forgive sins, but after his resurrection Jesus told the apostles, "‘As the Father has sent me, even so I send you.’ And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’" (John 20:21–23). (This is one of only two times we are told that God breathed on man, the other being in Genesis 2:7, when he made man a living soul. It emphasizes how important the establishment of the sacrament of penance was.)







The Commission





Christ told the apostles to follow his example: "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you" (John 20:21). Just as the apostles were to carry Christ’s message to the whole world, so they were to carry his forgiveness: "Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. 18:18).



This power was understood as coming from God: "All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation" (2 Cor. 5:18). Indeed, confirms Paul, "So we are ambassadors for Christ" (2 Cor. 5:20).



Some say that any power given to the apostles died with them. Not so. Some powers must have, such as the ability to write Scripture. But the powers necessary to maintain the Church as a living, spiritual society had to be passed down from generation to generation. If they ceased, the Church would cease, except as a quaint abstraction. Christ ordered the apostles to, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations." It would take much time. And he promised them assistance: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Matt. 28:19–20).



If the disciples believed that Christ instituted the power to sacramentally forgive sins in his stead, we would expect the apostles’ successors—the bishops—and Christians of later years to act as though such power was legitimately and habitually exercised. If, on the other hand, the sacramental forgiveness of sins was what Fundamentalists term it, an "invention," and if it was something foisted upon the young Church by ecclesiastical or political leaders, we’d expect to find records of protest. In fact, in early Christian writings we find no sign of protests concerning sacramental forgiveness of sins. Quite the contrary. We find confessing to a priest was accepted as part of the original deposit of faith handed down from the apostles.

Answer 17

Because it's fun watching him sweat.