How to explain the need for confession to a non catholic

  • Thread starter Thread starter allaussie
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
A

allaussie

Guest
How would you explain the need for a formal confession with a priest to an evangelical christian who is all about a direct relationship with God and even objects to the use of the term ‘Father’ for priests because of a verse in the bible which says to call nobody but God Father. I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with this girl and periodically I come up against a question that I can’t answer so I thought I would ask the experts here.
 
allaussie said:
How would you explain the need for a formal confession with a priest to an evangelical christian who is all about a direct relationship with God and even objects to the use of the term ‘Father’ for priests because of a verse in the bible which says to call nobody but God Father. I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with this girl and periodically I come up against a question that I can’t answer so I thought I would ask the experts here.
Click to expand...
The sad truth of the matter is that with views as extreme as hers apparently are, it will probably prove next to impossible to convince her that anything Catholic is of any importance or relevence whatsoever.

These people both hate and despise just about everything Catholic and by and large don’t even consider Catholics to be Christians at all.

I’ve tried to do this with such people in the past and found the task to be almost insurmountable except in the rarest of cases.
 
Thanks everyone for the links, that’s exactly the sort of information I needed. I couldn’t just explain it to her as I trust that people whose full time job is studying the bible and prayer know more than I do so I trust their judgement on the importance of the sacraments.
palmas85, I wasn’t expecting to convert her, I just wanted to explain my position, thus far the discussions have essentially been a civil (with one exception:mad:) sharing of information not attempts to convert one another or abuse each other’s religion.
 
In answering the questions of an anti-Catholic boss, I brought him to the point of realising what he had been told Catholics believe simply wasn’t true. He has since begun looking at the Catholic Church’s claim to be the One True Church.

Hang in there and before each conversation with her, pray “Mary, take over.” Silently of course. She and her Divine Spouse will come to youe assistance.
 
allaussie said:
How would you explain the need for a formal confession with a priest to an evangelical christian who is all about a direct relationship with God and even objects to the use of the term ‘Father’ for priests because of a verse in the bible which says to call nobody but God Father. I’ve been having an ongoing discussion with this girl and periodically I come up against a question that I can’t answer so I thought I would ask the experts here.
Click to expand...
Jesus told us to confess sins. He also said (I’m not sure about English translation): if YOU forgive them, they are forgiven, if you retain their sins, they are retained. YOU means priests or Church in general, that has a power to forgive sins. Jesus said many different things about confession to Faustina (see her diary) but He never said that we should give up confessing sins to a priest.
Read about how Pade Pio heard people’s confessions:)
 
I just had a similar experience trying to explain confession to my evangelical brothers-in-law and their wives. I also told them that Jesus said the words about forgiveness of sin, which of course they knew but choose to disregard. I told them that I didn’t think Jesus said things just to hear Himself talk. I also spent quite a bit of time explaining that we don’t worship Mary, but rather honor her, and that she always points us to her Son, but one of them kept telling me that we do indeed worship her. Of the four of them, three probably learned some things about the Church they didn’t know, and one didn’t want to learn anything, just wanted to cling to what she already believed about the Church.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top