for any catholics, why do you confess your sins to a priest and not go directly to God?

Question

I feel that I am important enough to God to take any sins straight to him, and talk about it with him... I never understood the thinking in that...

because i dont have to humble myself to a priest,i humble my self to God, and God only.... only he can forgive me, and cleanse my soul, not another man, even though he is a religious man, that is between me and God... I would go to a priest or preacher to hear the word or to be taught something, not to consider him on a level that I confess my sins to him, and him say everything is alright, God himself does that for me..

Answer 1

Whether you confess to a priest or God himself is not important.
It's important if you do not commit the sin that you asked forgiveness for in the first place.

That is when God will forgive you either directly or communicate through a priest.

Answer 2

Look it depends on the sin itself. If one person has done grave sin, he will surely feel the guilt. Like, lets just say a person did a sin because he felt like it, which later he felt really bad. Normally, until we confess it to someone, we will surely feel guilt inside. There confessing to God will make you fell more in pain. Naturally, the best way to relieve this pain is to speak to someone who would listen to you and lift the load from your chest. Basically that's what a Catholic Priest does, also, the best thing is he lifts the pain in the name of God, thus making you fell far more happier.
Look, what I'm trying to say is sins which keep haunting you can be cleansed through confession.
Other sins that are sins yet are not so important can be confessed in a general way.

Answer 3

You better hope you're right ... because Jesus himself set it up the Catholic way ... and you may have some 'xplainin' to do ... come Judgment Day.

Empowering his apostles to forgive sins in his name was the VERY FIRST THING Jesus did after he rose again from the dead.

Joh 20:21 He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.
Joh 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Joh 20:23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

Jesus died so sins could be forgiven. Then the first thing he did after his Resurrection was give his apostles the power to forgive sins.

Doesn't that sound like a HIGH PRIORITY, VERY IMPORTANT PROJECT to you?

Ever hear of the sin of presumption?

How about the sin of pride?

Try some humility instead ... it's typically the only thing Satan has no ability to overcome.

Immediate and certain absolution for sins is only one of the many eternal benefits of being Catholic, and it really doesn't get any better ... this side of heaven.

Answer 4

Because Jesus said so.

This sacrament is rooted in the mission God gave to Christ in his capacity as the Son of man on earth to go and forgive sins (cf. Matt. 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed this new power "glorified God, who had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8; note the plural "men"). After his resurrection, Jesus passed on his mission to forgive sins to his ministers, telling them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. . . . 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).

Since it is not possible to confess all of our many daily faults, we know that sacramental reconciliation is required only for grave or mortal sins—but it is required, or Christ would not have commanded it.

Over time, the forms in which the sacrament has been administered have changed. In the early Church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed openly in church, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Still, confession was not just something done in silence to God alone, but something done "in church," as the Didache (A.D. 70) indicates.

Penances also tended to be performed before rather than after absolution, and they were much more strict than those of today (ten years’ penance for abortion, for example, was common in the early Church).

But the basics of the sacrament have always been there, as the following quotations reveal. Of special significance is their recognition that confession and absolution must be received by a sinner before receiving Holy Communion, for "[w]hoever . . . eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord" (1 Cor. 11:27).

The Didache

"Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life. . . . On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure" (Didache 4:14, 14:1 [A.D. 70]).

The Letter of Barnabas

"You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light" (Letter of Barnabas 19 [A.D. 74]).

Answer 5

If you cannot humble yourself to confess to a priest.How can you do it with God.When they the priest are empowered by God to hear your confession to forgive and to bind on earth and in heaven.

Answer 6

hmm, well as a person who has tried to explore many different religions. I somehow come to find myself going towards a Catholic view again. I just see that talking to a priest is alike in the sense of speaking to a therapist. Both are experts in their fields, no? idk, I'm just adding my own opinion, feel free to disagree.
=)
furthermore, I will also add that speaking to a priest is not necessary, but it is okay to do so. I don't think God is picky if he is known as all-loving.
^_^

Answer 7

Amen! I'd like to know that too. For there is no other name where we must be saved than the name of Jesus. Since He died on the cross, now we can enter into the Holy of Holies. We not need to confess to any man, only God.

Answer 8

I confess every day (to God alone), and there is a prayer in the RC mass that says:
I confess to almighty God,
and to you,
my brothers and sisters,
that I have sinned through my own fault,
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done,
and in what I have failed to do;
and I ask blessed Mary,
ever virgin,
all the angels and saints,
and you,
my brothers and sisters,
to pray for me to the Lord our God.

In addition to that. what you said.

It is a Christian's duty to examine their conscience daily.
XP

to receive absolution from a priest is an experience unlike any other. This makes it serious when you have to say your ugliest thing to a living being. But once said, it is like a giant weight off of you, for the main thing in your life is Holy Communion, the Eucharist, the exortation of Christ to: DO THIS IN MEMORY OF ME

would you come before Christ without first washing every nook and cranny of your soul? someone's got to wash your back. a person can't reach all the places themselves.

It is not how important am I to God, but how important is Christ to me?

"Do you love me?" He asked of Peter. He asks it of us.

Answer 9

Hardly any Catholics actually go to Confession. You could make the same argument against born again Christians. Why can't they just tell Jesus they accept them? Why do they have to go through the whole process of signing papers and whatnot?

Answer 10

How about the verse that says "confess your sins one to another."

How do Protestants abide by this teaching?