Question re confession

[captainmike]

recently, the sister who teaches my rcia class told us that “the priest doesn’t forgive your sins. your sins are forgiven as soon as you confess them to god. the priest merely reconciles you to the church.”

that didn’t sound right to me, especially given that i perceive the sister (who is in her seventies, and who doesn’t wear a habit) to be disdainful of the all-male priesthood (and, therefore, it wouldn’t surprise me for her to say something that would diminish the significance of the priest in the eyes of the lay people).

anyway, i read what the catechism says about penance, and the way i read it, the priest does indeed forgive our sins. obviously, as the catechism states, god alone ultimately has the power to forgive, but he has delegated this power to his priests. the priest doesn’t simply reconcile the sinner with the church; he actually absolves the sinner of his sin. moreover, the priest not only has the power to forgive, but also the power to refuse to forgive (if, e.g., the sinner is not sufficiently remorseful).

am i reading this correctly?

 

[jmcrae]

anyway, i read what the catechism says about penance, and the way i read it, the priest does indeed forgive our sins. obviously, as the catechism states, god alone ultimately has the power to forgive, but he has delegated this power to his priests. the priest doesn’t simply reconcile the sinner with the church; he actually absolves the sinner of his sin. moreover, the priest not only has the power to forgive, but also the power to refuse to forgive (if, e.g., the sinner is not sufficiently remorseful).

am i reading this correctly?

Yes, this is correct. The priest was given this power through the laying on of hands at the time of his Ordination.

Remember that Christ said to the Apostles (our first priests) “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven …”

I think sometimes people get tangled up with trying to explain that the priest doesn’t forgive us by his own authority but by Christ’s authority - in other words, the priest isn’t there instead of Christ, but rather, because of Christ.

But they get all mixed up, and it comes out sounding like the priest doesn’t actually do anything. (That’s happened to me, sometimes. )