Sacraments · Intermediate
Confession to a Priest
Objection
“Why confess sins to a fallible priest? 1 John 1:9 says if we confess our sins to God, he is faithful to forgive us. Only God can forgive sins (Mark 2:7); adding a human intermediary is unnecessary and unbiblical.”
The Catholic response
It is entirely true that only God forgives sins by his own authority, but Scripture shows God freely choosing to exercise that authority through human instruments: on the very night of his Resurrection, Jesus breathed on the apostles and said, '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 20:22-23) — a real, specific grant of authority to declare sins forgiven or not, which only makes sense if sins were confessed to them so they could judge which to forgive or retain. This mirrors his earlier grant of 'binding and loosing' authority to Peter and later the apostles (Matthew 16:19, 18:18), rooted in the Old Testament priesthood, where the Levitical priests were mediators who pronounced people clean or unclean (Leviticus 13-14) and to whom sins were confessed with restitution (Numbers 5:6-7). The Epistle of James commands Christians to 'confess your sins to one another' in the context of healing and the elders' prayer (James 5:14-16), and the Didache, one of the earliest Christian texts (c. AD 90-110), already instructs believers to 'confess your transgressions' before receiving the Eucharist. Far from bypassing Christ, sacramental confession is Christ himself, through the priest acting in persona Christi, extending his own healing touch and definitive words of absolution into every generation.
Scripture references
Catechism
The Church Fathers
“In the congregation you shall confess your transgressions, and you shall not go to your prayer with an evil conscience.”
“Let each confess his sin while he is still in this world, while his confession can be received, while satisfaction and forgiveness granted through the priests are pleasing to the Lord.”
Mistakes to avoid
- Implying the priest forgives sins by his own power rather than as Christ's instrument.
- Not connecting confession to the Old Testament priestly pattern of mediated judgment.
- Failing to note that Catholics also make acts of personal contrition directly to God outside the sacrament.
Practice drills
Choose the response you would give, then see how it holds up.
Objection
“'John 20:23 just describes the apostles preaching the gospel generally — declaring who is forgiven based on faith, not literally absolving individuals.'”
Objection
“'A priest is just a sinful man — how can he have any role in something only God can do?'”