Why do so many willingly confess their sins to a priest? This has been a source of perplexity to many Protestants, but when we understand Roman Catholic doctrine on the purpose of the Confessional, we discover the bondage in which this doctrine and practice places the Roman Catholic.

If confession to a priest is necessary to obtain forgiveness from God, it places the Roman Catholic in a position of total dependence on the Roman Catholic Church for salvation.

Par 1456, says, “Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of penance”.

Par 1493, “One who desires to obtain reconciliation with God and with the Church must confess to a priest all the unconfessed grave sins he remembers”,

Par 1495, “Only priests can forgive sins in the name of Christ”.

The implication is that for God to forgive us our sins we must confess to a Roman Catholic priest, and that we cannot be saved without confessing our sins to a Roman Catholic priest.

The Council of Trent declared that: Canon 6, “ If anyone denies that the sacramental confession was instituted by divine law or is necessary to salvation, or says that the manner of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church has always observed from the beginning and still observes, is at variance with the institution and command of Christ and is a human contrivance, let him be anathema.”

Canon 9, “If anyone says that the sacramental absolution of the priest is not a judicial act but a mere service of pronouncing and declaring to him who confesses that the sins are forgiven … let him be anathema”.

BIBLICAL CONFESSION

 The Bible knows no such requirement placed by God on Christians in order to have their sins forgiven, and implies that confession is made directly to God, who alone can forgive.

1John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness”

Indeed, confession was unknown in the early Church and was not instituted as official Roman Catholic doctrine until 1215 by Pope Innocent III.

Dermot Nash