Does the Pope go to confession and who hears it?

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Hello I had this strange thought earlier that might create an interesting discussion. A side question might be does the Pope hear the cardinals confessions?
 
Pope Francis was setting a public example in this image, and it is not the norm for the Roman Pontiff to publicy confess to a random priest.

@jredden92’s article is correct, a papal confessor is typically appointed. And the same goes for Cardinals and ranking bishops, who have chosen confessors for themselves, and probably rarely go to anyone else.

It is considered best practice in the Catholic Church to have a regular confessor who knows you and can work to grow a relationship with you. A similar situation would be one’s Spiritual Director, who can also be a confessor if need be.
 
Hello, @jredden 92!
For sure the Holy Father is a human, a sinner, a simple person like us, and he would go to confession. He says his sins to another priest like what the other priest does. Most of the time, Pope Francis will go to the Croatian Franciscan priest in Argentina, Fr Berislav Ostojic, he’s one of the Pope’s long-standing confessors. Perhaps, he was more comfortable with speaking and hearing advice from this priest.
 
Actually this is a story of St. John Paul II who found out that a fallen away priest who was asking money outside a church in Rome. He found the way to get him invited over to his private apartment in the Vatican for supper and after supper having asked to be left alone with him proceeded to ask him to hear his personal confession.
The priest at first did not want to but the Pope insisted and having heard his confession made sure to help him.
Which teaches us 2 lessons, the first humility and the second our sacraments are forever. Baptism, Holy Orders are indelible which mean un-eresable mark in our souls.

The story in better detail is here: Pope John Paul II and the Beggar Priest

Peace!
 
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In this story the beggar priests tells others that the Pope asked him to hear his (the Pope’s) confession.

I thought that the seal of the confessional prevented even the fact of a person having confessed from being told to another.
 
FiveLinden said:
In this story the beggar priests tells others that the Pope asked him to hear his (the Pope’s) confession.

I thought that the seal of the confessional prevented even the fact of a person having confessed from being told to another.
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Since when did a pesky bit of Canon Law get in the way of mythbuilding?
 
Anesti33 said:
Pope Francis was setting a public example in this image, and it is not the norm for the Roman Pontiff to publicy confess to a random priest.

@jredden92’s article is correct, a papal confessor is typically appointed. And the same goes for Cardinals and ranking bishops, who have chosen confessors for themselves, and probably rarely go to anyone else.

It is considered best practice in the Catholic Church to have a regular confessor who knows you and can work to grow a relationship with you. A similar situation would be one’s Spiritual Director, who can also be a confessor if need be.
Click to expand...
@jredden92

Additionally, even seminarians and regular priests typically have one priest who typically hears their confession on a regular basis.

A priest once told me that he typically confesses to his one confessor who is 20+ miles away from him. So he has 1 or 2 local priests who he will call if he needs an emergency confession.

For the most part, that’s the way it is for all clergy, the Pope included.
 
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phil19034 said:
Additionally, even seminarians and regular priests typically have one priest who typically hears their confession on a regular basis.
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Most priests have somebody they prefer to go to mainly because they’ve got a good relationship with them but that doesn’t stop them going to any other priest (with the faculty of course). Likewise, seminaries are required to have regular times for confession and an assigned spiritual director whom the seminarians can use for the sacrament - other priests on staff are off limits if the’re role requires them to assess the seminarians’ suitability for orders since a priest is prohibited from using information learned in confession to the detriment of the penitent.

That said, seminarians still have a right to choose their own confessor and so can go to any other priest they want.
 
I wonder how a newly ordained priest (lets say one who has been an ordained priest for less than three months) would feel if a pope asked him to hear his confession.
 
To be honest, as the Pope and one who makes Canon law, he could have gave the priest a disposition. Of course, no clue if it happened or not.
 
I have to mention first that I am not catholic but I believe in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection. Many of the things related to the catholic religion I’m trying to understand and be open minded about. My question is “can a person confess to Jesus instead of a priest?” In other words, “why is it necessary to confess to a priest?”
RESPECTFULLY,
Me
 
DrLuvorkian said:
I have to mention first that I am not catholic but I believe in Jesus Christ and his sacrifice and resurrection. Many of the things related to the catholic religion I’m trying to understand and be open minded about. My question is “can a person confess to Jesus instead of a priest?” In other words, “why is it necessary to confess to a priest?”
RESPECTFULLY,
Me
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Well that’s a whole other thread. You’re welcome to start a new one, but you would be well-advised to search existing topics because we’ve discussed this one over and over and over again.
 
As Anesti33 noted, you should really start your own thread if you wish to discuss a different topic.

However, the short answer is we do NOT “confess to a priest”, we confess to GOD through the priest, whom Jesus has appointed in an official capacity to hear our sins on behalf of God and to impart God’s absolution on behalf of God, as a sacrament.






If you would like to discuss this further, please make a new thread of your own.
 
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