Why must Catholics confess their sins to a priest?

[patrick8888]

Not recommended for those who suffer from scrupulosity.

Actually, with weekly confession and my suffering from scrupulosity , it was and still is a battle but with the help from my confessor (and it took quite awhile and those were the darkest of days spiritually) . Scrupulosity is a demon in a sense, that you HAVE to fight through and I believed confession was the only way out. In my youth , I had such a terrifying time with this that I left the church for 10 years. I just could not deal with it. It was weekly confessions then, and when I came back , I started weekly confessions again. But I knew I had no other choice.

 

[patrick8888]

THIS IS A GREAT ANSWER! So much is assumed by the protestants. I used to be a Protestant minister and always thought I was following the Bible. Verses like Mat. 16 and John 20 would be uncomfortably glossed over. It is pretty darn clear that Jesus is passing on that authority to forgive sins and NOWHERE in the Bible does it say that we are to only confess our sins to God as has been quoted above. To me it is interesting just how much “tradition” is in the protestant sects and they often not only don’t see it, but fail to admit it when it clearly shown IN SCRIPTURE!!!

Wonderful! Was there a determining factor, a person or books that nudged you along?