In your opinion.......What is the function of the Catholic Act of Confession?

Question

What is the value of confession to the person who confesses?
What is the experience of confession?

Answer 1

As a Catholic, I find great value in Confession. The purpose of Confession is seen in the 'new' term- Reconciliation....it is the ritual by which we set our relationship with God back on the proper course- we reconcile with Him.

There is nothing we as humans can do to make right our offenses before God. So He gives us the Sacrament of Reconciliation to demonstrate our sorrow for our sins and our desire to bring ourselves back into union with Him.

I have found that when I feel worst about my sins, the harder it is to confess them....the better I feel after confessing AND the more committed I am to avoiding those sins again.

So Confession serves to clear the conscience AND help one to amend their life to be a better overall person.

Answer 2

According to Catholic belief, if you confess your sins, the priest can absolve you of the sins, meaning (theologically) that you no longer have to pay a penalty for them when you die. Of course, there are some conditions, but in most all cases you get absolved. The reasons most Catholics do confession is mostly spiritual, not psychological - they are looking for forgiveness from God because all sins are ultimately sins against God, and Catholics strive to have an ever-closer relationship with God. You should understand that Confessions isn't just about felling better about what you've done wrong, its about fixing things between you and God. In fact, if you just went to confession to make yourself feel better, according to Catholic law the confession wouldn't be valid.

Answer 3

According to Catholic belief, if you confess your sins to a priest and are genuinely repentent for having commited them, you will be forgiven in the eyes of the Lord. After confessing though, you would have to say certain prayers. The priest would tell you which ones and how many times to say them. The prayers vary depending on what your sins were and what not so one person might only have to say a few prayers while someone else might have to say a lot more.

Another note: confessions are told in confidentiality. That's why they are usually held behind closed doors. Priests can't break that confidentiality unless you told him that you were going to commit a crime or something like that. In that case, he could break it in order to prevent it from occuring. All in all, that confidentiality is kind of like an attorney client privilege.

Answer 4

I am not a Catholic and never will be.. but I am not saying that Catholics are bad.. just explaining that I am not.. the way that I see it is this.. after studying some of the foundations of the Catholic beliefs and traditions.. I think that in the early church it was a part of command and control of the faithful.. those that followed the Catholic doctrine.. you must remember that in the early days of government... the Catholic church controlled everything.. if you were not a Catholic then you were nothing.. The church kept a tight reign on everyone.. they were the law..and in order to keep their position of power.. they required all the catholic followers to do everything pertaining to the doctrine.. it was not just a religion as it is today.. it was a way of life..of living a controlled life.. I'd say most likely that it was a way to keep command and control over the people.. it was then and it is to some extent, it so today... Frankly I would not tell a priest or preacher any of my personal business..

Answer 5

Confession is a personal act of sorrow for having committed sin- the sorrow, the desire to atone, comes first.

When Christ was on earth, He established a special relationship with his designated followers, and gave them the power to forgive sins in His name. The person confesses their sins to the priest - a good priest counsels and advises them - and absolves them from their sins.

The act has several benefits. It forces us to be honest and to be specific - we don't like to admit that we are weak, or wicked, or have done a shameful thing. We can minimize our actions, if we are alone. But we have to explain to another person and that helps us to face what we have done.

A good priest can help in the process of avoiding that sin in the future. Priests do receive training, both spiritual and psychological, and can be of assistance. As in all things, some are better than others.

The final benefit is that the sinner knows their sin has been forgiven. We often hear - I just talk to God and ask for forgiveness. That's fine - but you have no way of knowing that your sin has actually been forgiven. In confession, as you receive absolution, you know.

Confession is two-edged. Few people actually "like" it - rather like going to the doctor. But when it is over, you feel much better for the experience.

As for those who speak of confession as a way of "controlling" people bythe church - they know neither the history of the sacrament nor the present exercise of it today

Answer 6

The function is to help the person identify what they are doing wrong in their life so that they can find solutions to their problems and peace of mind. The priest, then, can help counsel them and help them learn how to cleanse their sins through good works and repentance. That is how it SHOULD work, and often does.

Answer 7

It lifts a heavy burden off of your heart, and it gives the feeling of a cleansing of the soul.
In my opinion it is "useless".
We don't need to go to a man in a box for that. We can go directly to "The Christ" Himself. We don't need an interloper for that.

Answer 8

to disempower children to the point of being able to manipulate them into doing whatever those sick, twisted, self indulgent priests want them to do...human beings are, for the most part, disgusting...no i was not molested by a catholic priest...but just the fact that it apparently has happened a lot pisses me off...