Questions and Answers about Catholic Church Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest? We as Catholics believe that there are seven sacraments. The seven sacraments are manifestations of God's willingness to come right and work in our world through signs and symbols. And through these signs and symbols we see God touching us. For example, one of the sacraments is baptism. And we take the water of baptism, and we immerse a person in a pool of water. And that is symbolic going into a tomb and dying, and then coming to life. We have the beautiful sacrament of the Eucharist in which we take and do what Jesus said at the Last Supper, over the bread and the wine, this is my body, this is my blood. And we receive in our faith the body and the blood of Jesus. These are the sacraments, these are the external signs that are realities that touch us with the salvation of God. But one of the sacraments that's also very important is the sacrament of confession, the sacrament also of the word -- reconciliation. But the question arises, hmm, why is it that you Catholics have to confess your sins to a priest? Well, let's try to see if I can give you some understanding of that. First of all, if you read in the bible where Jesus actually is speaking of the church of God being empowered to speak the forgiveness of God. We have this in Matthew 16:19, Matthew 18:18, and even in the Gospel of John. Remember after the resurrection, and Jesus comes back to the apostles in the upper room, and in the twentieth chapter of John, he breathes on them. And after he breathes on them he gives them the power to forgive sins. He gives them the power to speak God's forgiveness as a church community. Well it's nothing more than the church in the sacrament of reconciliation trying to be faithful to that call of Jesus, that we are called to speak the forgiveness that God wants to give to the world. Now, before I say more about this thing of the priest coming and giving forgiveness, I think it's important that we remember that whenever we deal with sin, number one is after I've committed a sin I need to go to God. I need to turn to God and say God, I'm sorry. I've offended you, you've asked me not to do this sin, and I've sinned against you, and I'm sorry. But have you ever thought that whenever we do commit a sin, no matter what sin it is, it always has an effect on another person. So that after I've asked forgiveness of God, I need to ask forgiveness of the person that I've offended. But we as Catholics believe that there's also a dimension, and that's following this call of Christ to speak of the power of the community to forgive sins. That when I do commit sins, I need to be reconciled with the community that I've offended. And so the priest who represents the bishop, who represents the authority of the church speaks in the name of the Christian community, and in the name of God, and brings forgiveness to people. May you be willing in your heart to speak that word to the Father, may you be willing to be reconciled with the people you've hurt, and may you also be willing through the sacrament of confession to be reconciled with the community. < Return to Questions and Answers about Catholic Church Call Toll Free: 1-888-496-7363