Protestants, can a Catholic Priest forgive sins?

[benedictus2]

Man it gets deeper and deeper everytime I check this board!!!

Ginger2…Obviously as a protestant I think you do bring up some good points. However, if Catholics believe and their sacrament tells them confessing to a priest is something they need to do, then let them do it. No amount of scriptures or anything else you come up with is going to make them see differently. There is nothing wrong with them not seeing differently, I believe they are fellow Christians and are headed for the same goals that you and I are pressing towards as protestants. I completely understand the points they are making as to what their church has taught them. They are not saying the priest is directly giving them a pass to forgiveness. They are just going to him and confessing the sin, as you and I would approach God directly or even a fellow Christian to tell them we wronged them and they tell us that it is okay. Of course I know when we approach someone to apologize, we aren’t doing that because they have the power to erase that sin, only God can do that. So I get what the Catholics on here are saying, even though I don’t approach it that way, I still have to respect their thoughts for it.

Okay on to my next comment. A few has mentioned that a prostestant really doesn’t have that great gift of being able to go to a priest and confess. We may not go to a priest and confess and then are told that we are forgiven. But I don’t remember a single time that I was truly repentent that I knew God hadn’t forgave me. I knew I was truly forgiven. I felt it and I knew it. Just like you probably truly deeply feel it when told by a priest. I know with my church, we have the freedom to approach the alters at anytime when we feel the need to. There have been times that I felt a strong need to get something off me and hand it over to God and I did that. Now, I don’t know, but stepping out in a church of 200 members can be pretty intimidating and I think someone that does that, it is just as intense as going one on one with someone. No I didn’t publically announce what I was going for, but the step was all I need to get to the alter, to confess what it was or to just pray for what I needed. So, again I think we are all going for the same thing here, but in just different ways. There is nothing on either side that diminishes that fact. No matter if we go to a priest and do, we go to the alter, we pray at home or we go directly to someone or etc. I believe in all those cases, God is seeing our heart and we know deep down when we are truly forgiven and also when we do it with the right heart for change.

**I see in neither Catholic or in my protestant religion that either gives room for just sinning for the sake of sinning. **

God Bless You All

That is a very well thought out post!. Vunderbar!

 

[Cinette]

Your church has certainly had an incredibly interesting half-century. Personally, I kind of hope Benedict moves toward more rigorously tightening up and defining the beliefs and practices required of Catholics. It would certainly clear up a lot of post-Vatican II confusion on this website. I also think the traffic constituting the “cafeteria converts” would slow down that way, but would be more than made up for by more liturgically-minded folks from other traditions who aren’t sure which way the Vatican is going to move.

I was always the rebel, the naughtiest girl in the school, getting up to all kinds of mischief, cheeky - the lot. Since I have returned to the Faith after an absence of nearly 30 years I have found myself becoming more orthodox.

I love the way the CC refuses to compromise even if it means being unpopular. Cafeteria Catholics are going to have to make the choice of going for the full Menu or going to another Restaurant!!

 

[Cinette]

If a person confesses to a priest, but isn’t really sorry, he just wants a pass to sin, are his sins really forgiven?

If not, then the priest doesn’t have the power to forgive sins.

AND

If I am truly sorry for my sins but a priest refuses to hear my confession, can I go directly to Jesus and be forgiven?

If so, then the priest really doesn’t have the power to retain sins.

If a priest refuses to hear my confession, I can go to Christ Jesus, who is my mediator? The Bible says so!

If there is one mediator between God and man, then Jesus, who knows my heart will forgive me even tho your priest will not.

When has a priest ever refused to hear Confession.

If such a thing should happen, the one would go to another Priest!

 

[Cinette]

I’m not saying the purpose of confession is to get a pass to sin.

I am saying that some people don’t understand the process.

Just like some Protestants mistakenly believe OSAS is a free pass to sin,

some misguided Catholics think confession is a pass to sin.

It’s a fact, the priest cannot see into a person’s heart. It’s also a fact that a person who says "bless me father for I have sinned, my last confession was __ and then confesses his sins, will be told he is forgiven and asked to recite x many Hail Mary’s and X many Our Fathers.

Whether he is truly repentant or just went in because he was taught a priest can remove his sins.

When a person makes an act of contrition there is no reason for the priest to doubt him. The priest will advise and counsel the sinner but it is God who looks into the heart of the sinner - it is God who does the forgiving and between God and the sinner they know if the sins are forgiven because they are the only ones who know if the sinner is truly repentant. Unless of the course the person is mentally retarded in which case God will be merciful.

I learnt on another thread that there is a difference between forgive and mercy!

 

[Cinette]

And another thing. When Christ forgave us on the cross, we were not sorry. Those who killed him were not sorry.

When St Stephen, St Mary Gorretti, Romero, JPII forgave those who has done them harm, those people were not sorry.

The act of forgiveness goes beyond the penitents state of repentance. The knowledge of knowing one is forgiven actually brings about even deeper repentance.

Forgiveness is an act of love and Christ wanted us to know His love through the sacrament of confession.

As I’ve said before, Christ instituted this sacrament knowing that there will be those who will rock up to the confessional not 100% sorry for their sins. It has a power beyond just the wiping of past sins. It has the power to bring about true repentance.

I have forgiven people who I know are not truly sorry. If I can do that, by your reasoning, that makes me better than Christ. Quite a heretical thought.

I think this question of Confession has been pretty well answered.

Let’s face it for anyone to go to confession without being sorry for their sins doesn’t make sense. The person would have to be “mentally challenged”. I was at a meeting the other day at Family of God when someone from the back spoke out loud with a HUGE heresay. It was Niel - everyone knows he is not quite “intact” upstairs so we just let it go. Nobody would take him seriously.

Would anyone in their right mind go to confession just for kicks?

 

[Cinette]

Ginger here I go again - what is OSAS?

Cheers
Cinette

 

[rolltidefan]

Ginger here I go again - what is OSAS?

Cheers
Cinette

I know I am not Ginger, but just in case she is not on right now I will answer it for you. OSAS means once saved always saved.

 

[Cinette]

Man it gets deeper and deeper everytime I check this board!!!

Ginger2…Obviously as a protestant I think you do bring up some good points. However, if Catholics believe and their sacrament tells them confessing to a priest is something they need to do, then let them do it. No amount of scriptures or anything else you come up with is going to make them see differently. There is nothing wrong with them not seeing differently, I believe they are fellow Christians and are headed for the same goals that you and I are pressing towards as protestants. I completely understand the points they are making as to what their church has taught them. They are not saying the priest is directly giving them a pass to forgiveness. They are just going to him and confessing the sin, as you and I would approach God directly or even a fellow Christian to tell them we wronged them and they tell us that it is okay. Of course I know when we approach someone to apologize, we aren’t doing that because they have the power to erase that sin, only God can do that. So I get what the Catholics on here are saying, even though I don’t approach it that way, I still have to respect their thoughts for it.

Okay on to my next comment. A few has mentioned that a prostestant really doesn’t have that great gift of being able to go to a priest and confess. We may not go to a priest and confess and then are told that we are forgiven. But I don’t remember a single time that I was truly repentent that I knew God hadn’t forgave me. I knew I was truly forgiven. I felt it and I knew it. Just like you probably truly deeply feel it when told by a priest. I know with my church, we have the freedom to approach the alters at anytime when we feel the need to. There have been times that I felt a strong need to get something off me and hand it over to God and I did that. Now, I don’t know, but stepping out in a church of 200 members can be pretty intimidating and I think someone that does that, it is just as intense as going one on one with someone. No I didn’t publically announce what I was going for, but the step was all I need to get to the alter, to confess what it was or to just pray for what I needed. So, again I think we are all going for the same thing here, but in just different ways. There is nothing on either side that diminishes that fact. No matter if we go to a priest and do, we go to the alter, we pray at home or we go directly to someone or etc. I believe in all those cases, God is seeing our heart and we know deep down when we are truly forgiven and also when we do it with the right heart for change.

I see in neither Catholic or in my protestant religion that either gives room for just sinning for the sake of sinning.

God Bless You All

Short answer please - why do you think Jesus told the Apostles, “Whose sin you forgive, they are forgiven…” ? If it was OK to confess to another person surely there Jesus would have said nothing or just to people at large to do this?

 

[Cinette]

I know I am not Ginger, but just in case she is not on right now I will answer it for you. OSAS means once saved always saved.

*OKAY!!!
Thank you:blush:

 

[emeraldcoast]

To answer the question to this post “Protestants can a Catholic Priest forgive sins?”

You bet a Catholic priest can forgive sins just like you or I can forgive someone’s sins. I have been taught that any Christian may hear another’s confession and offer a declaration of forgiveness. If you are talking about absolution, this is another story.

youtube.com/watch?v=pbWH1yILLII

God Bless!

 

[Ginger2]

“Were you the kid who got in trouble in Sunday School for asking too many questions? Come join the rest of us.” ~ The Episcopal Church

This caught my attention as I just explained somewhere that I asked questions in catechism class and the nuns would become frustrated with me and say, “That’s just the way it is.”

 

[Cinette]

This caught my attention as I just explained somewhere that I asked questions in catechism class and the nuns would become frustrated with me and say, “That’s just the way it is.”

Ginger, these nuns were stupid. I do believe that there was a time when certain women entered the convent without any real vocation - they wanted to escape the world out of anger and frustration and some of them then vented their anger and frustration on their pupils.

 

[Peter_J]

Funny you should mention emeraldcoast’s signature, because we were just recently told on another thread that it is “offensive”.

 

[Peter_J]

Man it gets deeper and deeper everytime I check this board!!!

Ginger2…Obviously as a protestant I think you do bring up some good points. However, if Catholics believe and their sacrament tells them confessing to a priest is something they need to do, then let them do it. No amount of scriptures or anything else you come up with is going to make them see differently. There is nothing wrong with them not seeing differently, I believe they are fellow Christians and are headed for the same goals that you and I are pressing towards as protestants. I completely understand the points they are making as to what their church has taught them. They are not saying the priest is directly giving them a pass to forgiveness. They are just going to him and confessing the sin, as you and I would approach God directly or even a fellow Christian to tell them we wronged them and they tell us that it is okay. Of course I know when we approach someone to apologize, we aren’t doing that because they have the power to erase that sin, only God can do that. So I get what the Catholics on here are saying, even though I don’t approach it that way, I still have to respect their thoughts for it.

Okay on to my next comment. A few has mentioned that a prostestant really doesn’t have that great gift of being able to go to a priest and confess. We may not go to a priest and confess and then are told that we are forgiven. But I don’t remember a single time that I was truly repentent that I knew God hadn’t forgave me. I knew I was truly forgiven. I felt it and I knew it. Just like you probably truly deeply feel it when told by a priest. I know with my church, we have the freedom to approach the alters at anytime when we feel the need to. There have been times that I felt a strong need to get something off me and hand it over to God and I did that. Now, I don’t know, but stepping out in a church of 200 members can be pretty intimidating and I think someone that does that, it is just as intense as going one on one with someone. No I didn’t publically announce what I was going for, but the step was all I need to get to the alter, to confess what it was or to just pray for what I needed. So, again I think we are all going for the same thing here, but in just different ways. There is nothing on either side that diminishes that fact. No matter if we go to a priest and do, we go to the alter, we pray at home or we go directly to someone or etc. I believe in all those cases, God is seeing our heart and we know deep down when we are truly forgiven and also when we do it with the right heart for change.

I see in neither Catholic or in my protestant religion that either gives room for just sinning for the sake of sinning.

God Bless You All

Great post!

There is nothing wrong with them not seeing differently

Wow, that’s like a quadruple negative!

 

[emeraldcoast]

Funny you should mention emeraldcoast’s signature, because we were just recently told on another thread that it is “offensive”.

“Not every priest, nun, or other Catholic speaks for the Church. Catholicism is a big tent. There are lots of people inside of it, and not all of them are well informed. Some of them are flat-out wrong.”

Now Peter, your signature may also be offensive to some but also very true… I think that we could insert other churches for Catholic and it would still ring true.

God Bless!

 

[Ginger2]

Ginger, these nuns were stupid. I do believe that there was a time when certain women entered the convent without any real vocation - they wanted to escape the world out of anger and frustration and some of them then vented their anger and frustration on their pupils.

lol Well, when I was in first grade, I thought so too.

It’s hard to win a child over when you are expecting then to accept and believe things that don’t make sense, and you don’t appear to understand either!

I don’t think they were stupid, tho. I think I was asking questions that were just very hard to explain.

My parents saw to it I completed my Catholic education, but in reality I believe I left they church my first year in catechism.

I remember asking about original sin and thinking that is was not fair to blame me for what my father did - my father had a bad temper.

So, the “That’s just the way it is.” didn’t set well with me at all.

I am very careful to explain things to my children and admit when there are things that I can’t explain because they are difficult to understand. I explain about the spirit discerning things of the spirit

1Cr 2:13 Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.

 

[Peter_J]

I think pretty much every denomination engages in the because-I-say-so form of argument, at least on occasion.

For example, with regard to Sola Scriptura, I can never seem to get much more than “because I say so” from any Protestant. (Not to open another cans of worms or anything. )

 

[Peter_J]

“Not every priest, nun, or other Catholic speaks for the Church. Catholicism is a big tent. There are lots of people inside of it, and not all of them are well informed. Some of them are flat-out wrong.”

Now Peter, your signature may also be offensive to some

Oh dear! (insert emoticon of me having my wrist slapped and then being paddled)

 

[emeraldcoast]

This caught my attention as I just explained somewhere that I asked questions in catechism class and the nuns would become frustrated with me and say, “That’s just the way it is.”

Hi Ginger2,

One of the things that I really enjoy in my church is our Adult Sunday School. It is awesome! During Advent, every Wednesday night we have dinner which is followed by teaching at our church. Last night, our pastor brought up someone’s name in the Bible and I was totally clueless of this person. I asked the pastor about the person and I couldn’t wait to learn more about him and the women that were mentioned. I knew the main story but was missing the details…kwim… Asking questions should be encourage because it encourages growth especially in one’s faith.

By the way, Simeon and Anna were the people that my pastor had mentioned that I was clueless about… I am not clueless anymore about Simeon and Anna…

God Bless!

 

[emeraldcoast]

Oh dear! (insert emoticon of me having my wrist slapped and then being paddled)