As Catholics we certainly are right to call our priests ‘Father’, just as St Paul many times in his letters calls himself a father to those whom he gave spiritual counsel to, and calls them his children.
As Catholics we ALSO know that God can and does give the power and authority to forgive sins to human beings - Christ Himself gave this power to the Apostles, for example, and they used it. Nor did it die with them, since God does not give merely temporary gifts.
St James in his letter commands us to ‘confess your sins to each other’, in other words not just to Him, and this is the means by which we receive the absolution which He gave to the Apostles the power to do, and they in turn passed on to their successors, our bishops and priests.
As a Catholic yourself, all this is required belief for you.
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