Priests can absolve sins, more so can God Himself

[sapphire778]

Being a believing Catholic, I believe in the sacrament and practice of Confessions. But at the same time, I personally believe God can forgive sinners who ask of His forgiveness directly, without the intervening power of a priest given by God himself. I say this because since God is full of mercy and there are His followers outside of the Church (i.e protestants), some of who have never heard or understood the grace and power of Confessions, He would not allow their repented souls to die in mortal sins that remained through no fault of their own…

What do you think, do you agree with me?

 

[Dorothy]

Of course God can forgive sins directly, but please remember that as Catholics we are to be obedient to the directives of the Church. The priest stands in for Our Lord Jesus Christ, and sacramental confession imparts graces to us.

 

[JerryS]

God, of course, can forgive sins outside of confession. However, a person has no assurance of forgiveness unless they receive a valid sacramental confession.

There is no assurance that the ignorance of most Protestants is invincible. That, in fact, would be a dangerous and unloving assumption. There is certainly no reason to believe that the many Catholics who are in mortal sin are in friendship with God.

 

[Teresita99]

Being a believing Catholic, I believe in the sacrament and practice of Confessions. But at the same time, I personally believe God can forgive sinners who ask of His forgiveness directly, without the intervening power of a priest given by God himself

The very act of going to confession demonstrates a contrite heart. A person may delude himself, not going to confession, thinking he has become sufficiently contrite to obtain God’s forgiveness, when they may very well be like the Pharisee who says, “Thank you, God, that I am not like that sinner over there in the confessional.”