Because that is how Jesus established His Church…he established Holy Orders at the Last Supper.I must admit I have been struggling with how we need to interact with another person aka priests for all the sacraments.
How does one have a personal relationship with God if one needs to ask forgiveness through another person?
It’s not really personal then is it?
Do priests forgive sins or does Jesus?Because that is how Jesus established His Church…he established Holy Orders at the Last Supper.
The Sacrament of Confession…John 20:21-23…pretty significant that the only other time in Scripture where Jesus breathes on man is Genesis 2:7.
Also the apostles were not mind readers it’s pretty clear that if they were to forgive sins they had to hear one’s confession.
Do priests forgive sins or does Jesus?
1441 Only God forgives sins.Since he is the Son of God, Jesus says of himself, “The Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins” and exercises this divine power: "Your sins are forgiven."Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name.
You should read the whole section…1461 Since Christ entrusted to his apostles the ministry of reconciliation, bishops who are their successors, and priests, the bishops’ collaborators, continue to exercise this ministry. Indeed bishops and priests, by virtue of the sacrament of Holy Orders, have the power to forgive all sins “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.”
It is well known that personal relationship with God is used in other than the Catholic Church.Sorry; what point are you trying to make please?
The expression “personal relationship with God” is one other churches use and that was my point, Clearly no one has quite grasped that!
It really is so very very simple.
I actually was puzzled by this “personal relationship with Jesus” in my past Catholic life before I returned to the Church. I had always had a more “natural faith” rather than a “supernatural faith”. I was sincerely puzzled as to if God truly loved me personally. I had a very difficult childhood all the way up into my 30s. It was hard to understand how God would love me and yet all these things happened.It seems as though in modern times, many who call themselves Catholic are into asking whether or not one has a “personal relationship with Jesus”. This is particularly big with those who buy into “charismatic renewal”. It seems as though, in an attempt to unify with protestantism, these folks think they are going to “ween people away” from what they consider archaic about Holy Mother Church. Perhaps they don’t believe in the teaching authority of the Church and that the Church as the visible Body of Christ is not necessary. Thoughts?
I don’t think that’s the kind of “personal” we are talking about. That’s more a caricature of the real thing.I saw a good example of this while waiting for the Vegas debate. A LOT of people were milling around waiting. A lot of them carried signs that read :“all you need is Jesus, not church”.
The sense in which the protestants use it has that elitist sense to it. Of course they don’t think that man needs any intermediaries which makes them protestants.I don’t think that’s the kind of “personal” we are talking about. That’s more a caricature of the real thing.
Some people don’t know what personal means. It is conflated with individualist in an exclusive sense.
A personal relationship with Christ is a unifiying relationship. I hope everyone knows the difference.
Very well said. That is the Catholic approach. It’s saddening when you see catholics adopting the same mentality.I also have seen this trend of some Catholics (don’t know if they are charismatics) who buy into the protestant notion of a ‘personal relationship’ with Jesus. I hear statements such as ‘we need to bring people to Jesus before we bring them into the Church’. It implies a separation of Jesus from His Church. A relationship with Jesus without His Church turns into finding one’s own personal Jesus… in effect protestantism. Very convenient for dissenters who say ‘well I don’t agree with this church teaching or that church teaching’.
I have also heard faithful Catholics derisively labeled ‘pray, pay and obey’ Catholics by the same. All three things btw we are commanded to do in Scripture.
Cardinal Dolan had a great talk about this at the Napa conference where he talked about how we can not have a relationship with Jesus without His Church. A funny line he said was ‘these people want Jesus as their Shepherd as long as they are the only lamb’
Pope Francis…