Common Misunderstanding: Many Protestants insist that since only God can forgive sin, every sinner must approach him individually. It is said that no man can forgive sins, hence to have priests forgiving sins in confession is a sacrilege and blasphemy. After all, the Bible says that "there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1 Tim. 2:5).
The Truth: Priests can forgive our sins because Jesus has given them that authority through the grace of Holy Orders. With that power, priests can hear and forgive our sins by acting through Christ.
"Jesus gave the Church the Sacrament of Reconciliation, also known as Penance or Confession, to allow us to have an intimate conversation with our God through the priest. We confess our sins to a priest, who is the minister of the sacrament, because he stands “in Persona Christi,” meaning that he is in the person of Christ.
It is through the Sacrament of Reconciliation that the stains of even our grave, mortal sins are actually removed from our souls and we are given new life. While we may talk to God in prayer to ask for forgiveness for our venial sins, our sins are not removed until after our renewal through Sacramental Grace.
Then through our Act of Contrition, in which we promise to do our best to never sin again, the prayer of absolution, and enacting the penance, our sins are forgiven."
- Life Teen
Remember: Every priest is bound by the sigillum, or seal, which forbids him, to reveal a person's confession in even the most general way.
It's Completely Biblical:
1. Matt 16:18-19: "And so I say to you, you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of the netherworld shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
2. Matt 18:18: "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."
3. John 20:21-23: Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he has 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."
Why Confess My Sins to a Priest - Fr. Mike Schmitz
"Confession isn’t a man-made tradition of the Church but rather a valuable gift given by God and rooted in Scripture."
Let's dive in a bit deeper:
To begin: The Sacrament of Penance, or Confession, was instituted by Our Divine Lord, and it satisfies the deepest aspirations of the human soul.
Experience reveals these three aspirations: When a person does wrong, he/she wants to...
1.) Avowal the Wrongdoing: No human being feels satisfied with uneasiness in his heart, where it rankles and festers. A speck gets into the eye, and through pain and tears, the eye demands that the dust be removed. Conscience is no different: every sin seeks release.
Repression of our sins (escaping an uneasy conscience through denial or completely abandoning all morals) can be dangerous. Repression of even a physical disorder is dangerous to the body, as repression of a moral disorder is dangerous to the soul. To keep sin to oneself is worse than keeping a disease to oneself.
2.) The Right Listener: A patient confides his physical or mental sickness to the doctor, as a student offers his ignorance to the teacher; why should not sin also have its confidante? That a man may administer this Sacrament is logical--the Son of God forgave sins through His human nature. He also transmitted the power to forgive to His Church.
John 20:21-22: Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he has 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." (These words imply the hearing of confession, for how would one know which sins to forgive and which sins not to forgive unless they were heard?)
3.) For the Correct/Rightful Objective: If a sin were merely a mistake a man had made, he might indeed, confide it to anyone who cared to hear. However, sin is against God and thus, healing must be done on that level.
- Peace of Soul by Fulton J. Sheen
For more information about the Sacrament of Confession visit: