Jesus gave the power to forgive our sins to a Priest

[Adam14]

Here is something else from that same webpage/link above;
Note that the power Christ gave the apostles was twofold: to forgive sins or to hold them bound, which means to retain them unforgiven. Several things follow from this. First, the apostles could not know what sins to forgive and what not to forgive unless they were first told the sins by the sinner. This implies confession. Second, their authority was not merely to proclaim that God had already forgiven sins or that he would forgive sins if there were proper repentance.
Sounds like a priest can either forgive me or not forgive me for my sins in confession. Jesus gave them that power. When the priest absolves me of my sins I know that he has forgiven me, meaning, Jesus has forgiven me of my sins. That’s all I need to know for me to be at peace after going to Confession.

This is not intended to be a sarcastic question, but what happens if one priest forgives your sins, and another doesn’t? I know, typically I assume one would only be confessing to 1 priest…but it could happen, no?

 

[Annie_B]

This is not intended to be a sarcastic question, but what happens if one priest forgives your sins, and another doesn’t? I know, typically I assume one would only be confessing to 1 priest…but it could happen, no?

I suppose anything could happen when humans are involved

Annie

 

[Annie_B]

I got my answer; straightforward and ~simple~ in terms I can understand! here it is:

Today, 9:44 am
Fr. Vincent Serpa
Catholic Answers Apologist Join Date: May 4, 2004
Location: San Diego, CA
Posts: 2,228

Re: Who forgives our sins?

---

Hi,

Jesus gave His priests the power to forgive sins. So the priest does forgive the sins. But in absolving the person’s sins the priest is offering Christ’s forgiveness–not his own.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.

 

[AlegreFe]

This is not intended to be a sarcastic question, but what happens if one priest forgives your sins, and another doesn’t? I know, typically I assume one would only be confessing to 1 priest…but it could happen, no?

I think you have to be more specific but it sounds like you are saying that I would confess a sin to one priest and then confess that same exact sin to another priest. Is that what you’re saying? Because if it is, it would be silly for me to confess a sin to one priest and then go to a different priest with the same sin. I would have no reason to confess a same sin again to a different priest. So that question is nonsensical if that is what you mean.

If you mean otherwise, then it is possible if I go to one priest one week to confess my sins and he’ll forgive me or absolve me of my sins. And then go the following week to another priest to confess other sins committed since the last confession and he not forgive my sins. I tend to go to the same parish for confession but it doesn’t always happen that the same priest will hear confessions two weeks in a row. I tend to go to confession every week.
That however, I would imagine, would be rare. For me personally, it never happened. I was always forgiven or absolved of all my sins and I thank God for that.

I still don’t see why you would ask such a question. But this is a public forum and you can ask any question you wish, so I’ll give you that.

 

[AlegreFe]

I got my answer; straightforward and ~simple~ in terms I can understand! here it is:

Today, 9:44 am
Fr. Vincent Serpa

Re: Who forgives our sins?​

Hi,

Jesus gave His priests the power to forgive sins. So the priest does forgive the sins. But in absolving the person’s sins the priest is offering Christ’s forgiveness–not his own.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.

Thank you. Just as I thought.

Here is a link so you can read Annie’s whole question; Who forgives our sins?

 

[Lilyflower]

I don’t see anything wrong of confessing sins to a priest after i confessing it to God…so i supported it despite am a protestant

In fact what you advocate is very very Catholic.

We believe for sin to be forgiven we must be heartely sorry and we must make a firm purpose of ammendment. That is to say, we are sorry for sinning and we make a determined effort not to sin again. This has to be arrived at before a sin can be forgiven. Therefore we realise our sin and confess it/say sorry to God before we go into the Sacrament of Confession.

Blessings and peace