Topic on Confession

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I was watching a YouTube video on the topic of Christians vs. Catholics, what are similarities, differences, etc. One of the points made was about confession. It said that confession with a priest is not required and that you can confess your sins on your own directly to God. My question is, do you need to see a priest to confess your sins or not? Why or why not?
 
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All Catholics are also Christians.
Not all Christians are Catholic

Yes Catholics see a Priest to seek out God’s mercy and forgiveness
 
You can, of course, confess your sins to God at any time, and you should. If you are repentant, He sill forgive you. But if you want to hear the words of absolution and be assured of forgiveness, receive the sacrament of reconciliation as soon as possible.
 
Atrocitous said:
Jesus points out some very interesting things when the Disciples bring up people preaching or casting out demons in Jesus name.
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what does this have to do with confession? I say this because you are implying the church “glosses” over this…but it’s like you are saying exorcism and confession are the same thing, which they aren’t. The catholic church doesn’t technically have a monopoly over exorcism (technically because most people in the end resort to Catholic exorcism anyways, because its the one true faith, but this is besides the point).

All that being said, confession has always been taught to be the proper way to do things and the Catholics are right on this subject. Just be happy you don’t have to do it like they did in the old days (sometimes publicly haha)
 
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If you can’t get to Confession you can say a perfect act contrition with the resolve to go to Confession as soon as possible. I’m not aware of any other way for sins to be forgiven for Catholics. But one of the priests here or someone else can confirm this.
 
The Catholic Church teaches that mortal sins must be confessed, in confession to a priest, so that you can receive absolution and restore your relationship with God.
Protestants did away with the sacrament of Confession during the Reformation. Catholics retain the sacrament.
 
So God forgives your sins you confess to Him but if you want to physically hear that or “just make sure” you are forgiven go to confession. So we believe God forgives your sins hen you go to only Him but we should confess to a priest just in case? Which I s it?
 
MattM said:
I was watching a YouTube video on the topic of Christians vs. Catholics, what are similarities, differences, etc. One of the points made was about confession. It said that confession with a priest is not required and that you can confess your sins on your own directly to God. My question is, do you need to see a priest to confess your sins or not? Why or why not?
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Mortal sins should be confessed to a priest. The sacrament of confession allows for absolution when the contrition is not perfect (contrition of charity).
 
redcatholic said:
So God forgives your sins you confess to Him but if you want to physically hear that or “just make sure” you are forgiven go to confession. So we believe God forgives your sins hen you go to only Him but we should confess to a priest just in case? Which I s it?
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Hi red,
Sacramental confession is required before receiving communion.
While God is not bound by any of his sacraments, and you may indeed be forgiven by him without a priest, you need also be reconciled with his church before receiving holy communion again, and that is achieved only through the sacrament of reconciliation.

Also, remember how Jesus told his first apostles (priests) when he breathed on them and said “Whoever sins you forgive are forgiven, and whoever sins you retain are retained.”
So when you confess to a priest and receive absolution then there is absolutely NO DOUBT that you have indeed been forgiven and returned to God’s good graces as well as his Church. Sacramental confession takes all the guesswork out of the equation.
 
We confess in Confession because it is the route of forgiveness of grave sin & it offers the grace of the sacrament to help us avoid sin in the future. There are other efficacious effects but I can’t recall them at the moment. Pick up a Baltimore catechism. I believe it lists five effects of sacramental Confession.
 
Nigel7 said:
Sacramental confession is required before receiving communion.
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No, that is not what the Church teaches, Nigel.

Confession of MORTAL sins is required. Confession of VENIAL sins is NOT required.

We should not give wrong information.
 
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Thanks LeonardoArruda for posting this Fr. Mike Schmitz video.

I would urge anybody who has this confession question about “why do Catholics confess to priests” to watch it. Fr. Mike gets into the various Scripture references and it’s a very good explanation.

And I also think Fr. Mike is absolutely correct at the end when he says people try to get out of confession because they are too embarrassed to actually tell sins to a priest, even though the priest has heard it all and is going to forget everything in the next 5 minutes.

I do have some sympathy for this because I used to have a number of nervous issues that caused me to be terrified of confession for literally decades, but I am happy to say that with God’s help I was able to get past that simply by going to confession a lot and by stopping my most major sins (which the grace from confession probably helped me to stop) so if you’re nervous of it then that’s all the more reason to go once a month till it becomes routine.
 
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I was speaking of someone in a state of mortal sin, OF COURSE, paperwight, as it is generally known by Catholics that that is when - by church teaching - that sacramental confession is required in the first place, and was not the subject of this thread.
What I said in my post IS INDEED what the church teaches.
I am sorry that you were confused by my post, paperwight.
 
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MattM said:
I was watching a YouTube video on the topic of Christians vs. Catholics, what are similarities, differences, etc.
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A highly offensive opening. You mean Protestants and Catholics. They are both Christians.
 
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The sacrament of confession is the ordinary means that Jesus gave us for forgiveness of sins. He breathed on his apostles and told them, “whoever’s sins you forgive, they are forgiven, Whose sins you retain, they are retained.” That was the institution of the sacrament, which is given for our own consolation. God is not bound by the sacraments, but we are, because he gives them for our benefit. Ideally a person should make an examination of conscience every day, and confess those sins to God asking for His forgiveness, then confess mortal sins in the sacrament at the next opportunity. Jesus knew that we need to hear the words of absolution; that’s why he established the sacrament.
 
JimG said:
Jesus knew that we need to hear the words of absolution; that’s why he established the sacrament.
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While a nice sentiment, I certainly don’t think this is the actual answer. Fr mike did a good job.
 
Yeah. That is certainly not the tone of the post I replied to. I agree with you.
 
Nigel7 said:
I was speaking of someone in a state of mortal sin, OF COURSE, paperwight, as it is generally known by Catholics that that is when - by church teaching - that sacramental confession is required in the first place, and was not the subject of this thread.
What I said in my post IS INDEED what the church teaches.
I am sorry that you were confused by my post, paperwight.
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But you are forgetting that these boards are read by those who are not Catholics, or do not know the correct teaching. We have to be accurate.

Your original post stated baldly that confession was required before receiving. Holy Communion. And that is not what the Church teaches.
Nigel7 said:
Sacramental confession is required before receiving communion.
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