Why Do Catholics Confess Sins to a Priest?

"Why tell my sins to a man? I can go straight to God." Fair question. Let's answer it from the Bible.

Short answer: Because Jesus set it up that way. On Easter evening He breathed on His apostles and said, "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained" (John 20:22–23). God alone forgives sins, but He chose to forgive them through men He sent.

Key verses

• John 20:22–23: "Receive the holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them"
• Matthew 9:8: "glorified God who had given such authority to human beings"
• Matthew 18:18: "whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"
• 2 Corinthians 5:18–20: "given us the ministry of reconciliation... So we are ambassadors for Christ"
• James 5:14–16: "He should summon the presbyters of the church... Therefore, confess your sins to one another"

Scripture quotations are from the New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE), © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

What Catholics Actually Teach

The Church agrees with the objector: "Only God forgives sins" (CCC 1441). Jesus, the Son of God, exercised that divine power on earth, and He "entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry" (CCC 1442). Bishops, as the apostles' successors, and priests, as their collaborators, "continue to exercise this ministry" (CCC 1461). That is why the sacrament is called confession: "the disclosure or confession of sins to a priest is an essential element of this sacrament" (CCC 1424).

What Catholics do not teach:

• That the priest forgives by his own power. It is God who grants pardon, "by the priest's sacramental absolution" (CCC 1424). God forgives; the priest is His instrument, acting in the person of Christ.
• That you shouldn't pray to God directly. You should, every day.
• That confession is a magic formula. Without real sorrow, it's empty: "Among the penitent's acts contrition occupies first place" (CCC 1451).

The Biblical Case

1. John 20: Jesus sends the apostles to forgive

Read John 20:21–23 and notice three things:

1. The sending. "As the Father has sent me, so I send you." The Father sent the Son with "authority to forgive sins on earth" (Mark 2:10). Now the Son sends the apostles the same way, then speaks of forgiving sins.
2. The breath. The Greek verb for "breathed" appears nowhere else in the New Testament. It is the verb the Greek Old Testament uses when God "blew into his nostrils the breath of life" (Genesis 2:7). This is new creation.
3. Forgive or retain. No one can choose between them without hearing the sins. A judge can't rule on a case he never hears. John 20:23 assumes sins are spoken aloud.

2. Matthew 9: authority "given to human beings"

Jesus heals a paralytic to prove "that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins" (Matthew 9:6). The crowd's reaction: "they were struck with awe and glorified God who had given such authority to human beings" (Matthew 9:8). Human beings, plural. St. Matthew doesn't correct them.

3. Binding and loosing

"Amen, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 18:18). The setting is sin within the community (Matthew 18:15–17), and the promise was first made to St. Peter (Matthew 16:19). Heaven ratifies what Christ's ministers do on earth.

4. 2 Corinthians 5: the ministry of reconciliation

God "has reconciled us to himself through Christ and given us the ministry of reconciliation... So we are ambassadors for Christ, as if God were appealing through us" (2 Corinthians 5:18–20). An ambassador speaks with his king's authority. St. Paul uses it: "what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ" (2 Corinthians 2:10). (Douay-Rheims: "in the person of Christ.")

5. James 5: confession with the presbyters

"He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him... If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed." (James 5:14–16)

"Presbyters" is presbyteroi, the Greek word from which English "priest" descends; the NABRE simply carries the Greek word over. The presbyters pray, sins are forgiven, and then: "Therefore, confess."

6. God has long joined confession to a minister

Under the Law, the sinner "shall confess the wrong committed," and "the priest shall make atonement on the individual's behalf for the wrong" (Leviticus 5:5–6; compare Numbers 5:6–8). In Ephesus, new believers "came forward and openly acknowledged their former practices" (Acts 19:18). Today's priest offers no animal sacrifice. In absolution he applies the once-for-all sacrifice of the Lamb.

Objections Answered

(a) "Only God can forgive sins."

At its strongest: The scribes said it first: "Who but God alone can forgive sins?" (Mark 2:7). Claim that power for a priest and you claim what is God's.

Answer: The scribes' premise was right (CCC 1441). Their conclusion was wrong: they assumed no one on earth could exercise that power. Jesus proved otherwise (Mark 2:10–12), the crowd saw that God "had given such authority to human beings" (Matthew 9:8), and Jesus handed it on (John 20:23). The question isn't whether God forgives, but how He chose to. A priest forgiving by his own power would be blasphemy. A priest forgiving because Christ sent him is obedience.

(b) "1 John 1:9 says confess to God, and there is one mediator."

At its strongest: "If we acknowledge our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from every wrongdoing" (1 John 1:9). No priest there. And "there is also one mediator between God and the human race, Christ Jesus, himself human" (1 Timothy 2:5). A human confessor gets in the way.

Answer: 1 John 1:9 says that we must acknowledge our sins, not that a minister is excluded. The same apostle recorded John 20:23; St. John doesn't contradict St. John. As for the one mediator, four verses earlier St. Paul asks that "supplications, prayers, petitions, and thanksgivings be offered for everyone" (1 Timothy 2:1). Praying for a friend doesn't make you a second mediator, and hearing confessions doesn't make the priest one. He doesn't stand between you and Christ. Christ stands behind him.

(c) "James 5:16 means confess to anyone, not a priest."

At its strongest: "Confess your sins to one another" is mutual: every believer to every believer. Nothing about ordained clergy.

Answer: Mutual confession is good. But "Therefore" points back to the presbyters (James 5:14), whose prayer brings forgiveness (5:15). True, James 5:16 alone doesn't prove sacramental confession. It doesn't have to stand alone. Jesus gave the power to forgive and retain to the apostles (John 20:23), not to every believer, and St. James places spoken confession in the setting where the Church's presbyters pray and sins are forgiven. Notice what even the objection concedes: St. James commands Christians to confess their sins aloud to another person. The real question is not whether to confess to a human being, but to whom Christ gave authority to absolve.

(d) "Confession to a priest was invented in the Middle Ages."

At its strongest: Private, individual confession to a priest became the standard form only in the early medieval West, and the Fourth Lateran Council (1215) first required every Catholic to confess at least once a year. Early penance was public and rare.

Answer: The form of penance has changed; the power has not. Early penance for grave sin was often public and severe, and the private form spread later. Lateran IV made yearly confession a law; it did not invent confession to priests. The power comes from John 20:23, and the practice is visible long before 1215: the Didache (late 1st or early 2nd century) commands confession of sins in the assembly, and St. Cyprian (c. 251) urges Christians to confess "to God's priests" (see below). A council that requires something once a year proves it already existed.

The Early Church Agrees

From the first generations after the apostles, Christians confessed their sins within the Church and sought reconciliation through her ministers. The earliest texts are brief; the later ones spell out what was already being done.

• The Didache (late first or early second century): "In the church you shall acknowledge your transgressions, and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience" (4:14). And before the Sunday Eucharist: "give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure" (14:1).
• St. Ignatius of Antioch (Letter to the Philadelphians, early 2nd century), written on his way to martyrdom: "To all them that repent, the Lord grants forgiveness, if they turn in penitence to the unity of God, and to communion with the bishop" (ch. 8). Even this early, repentance meant returning to communion with the bishop.
• Tertullian (On Repentance, c. AD 203) describes exomologesis, "whereby we confess our sins to the Lord," an outward, visible act of penance, and notes the same hesitation people feel today: "most men either shun this work, as being a public exposure of themselves, or else defer it from day to day," like those who "avoid the privity of physicians, and so perish with their own bashfulness" (chs. 9–10).
• St. Cyprian of Carthage (The Lapsed, c. AD 251) praises those who had only considered apostasy, yet "with grief and simplicity confess this very thing to God's priests" (28), and urges "that each one should confess his own sin, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession may be received, while the satisfaction and remission made by the priests are pleasing to the Lord" (29). Confession to priests, even of sins only contemplated, with remission through them: the substance of the sacrament, nearly a thousand years before Lateran IV.
• St. Ambrose of Milan (Concerning Repentance, late fourth century), on the power Christ gave His apostles: "In like manner it seemed impossible that sins should be forgiven through repentance, but Christ gave this power to His apostles, which has been transmitted to the priestly office" (2.2.12).

Conclusion: Come to the Physician

Jesus said, "Those who are well do not need a physician, but the sick do. I did not come to call the righteous but sinners" (Mark 2:17). Confession is not an empty ritual. It is healing from the Divine Physician, who meets you through the man He sent so you can hear it aloud: your sins are forgiven.

If you're Protestant, we're not asking you to go around Jesus. We're asking you to take John 20:23 at its word. Why would He give men power to forgive and retain sins if no one was meant to use it?

Come home. The power to forgive sins that Jesus breathed on His apostles is still exercised today in the confessionals of the Catholic Church. Christ did not found many churches. He founded one, on St. Peter and the apostles (Matthew 16:18), and that Church is the Catholic Church. "It is through Christ's Catholic Church alone, which is the universal help toward salvation, that the fullness of the means of salvation can be obtained" (CCC 816). If you are a baptized Christian, you already share "a certain, although imperfect, communion" with her (CCC 838). Every truth you already hold is a call to the rest of the way. Christ is calling you into the Catholic Church.

Your next step: Come to Mass this Sunday at your local Catholic church. You can find one near you at MassTimes.org. Everyone is welcome; if you're not yet Catholic, pray with us but don't receive Communion yet. When you're ready to become Catholic, call the parish office and ask about OCIA, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults. They will walk you through every step. Read our guide: How Do I Become Catholic? Not ready yet? Get our free pocket guide below and keep learning.

FAQ

Can't I just confess to God directly? You should, every day. But Jesus also gave His ministers power to forgive (John 20:23). Catholics must confess "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious" (CCC 1456), and "Anyone who is aware of having committed a mortal sin must not receive Holy Communion" without first receiving absolution, unless there is a grave reason and "no possibility of going to confession" (CCC 1457). Perfect contrition, sorrow out of love for God, "also obtains forgiveness of mortal sins" if it includes "the firm resolution to have recourse to sacramental confession as soon as possible" (CCC 1452). Confessing lesser sins is "strongly recommended" (CCC 1458).

Where in the Bible is confession to a priest? Above all in John 20:21–23. The key verses above list the rest.

Does the priest ever reveal what you confess? Never. "Every priest who hears confessions is bound under very severe penalties to keep absolute secrecy regarding the sins that his penitents have confessed to him" (CCC 1467). That is the seal of confession.

Sources

Scripture (NABRE, bible.usccb.org): Genesis 2:7; Leviticus 5:5–6; Numbers 5:6–8; Matthew 9:6–8; Matthew 16:18; Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:15–18; Mark 2:5–12; Mark 2:17; John 20:21–23; Acts 19:18; 2 Corinthians 2:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17–20; 1 Timothy 2:1–5; James 5:14–16; 1 John 1:8–9. Douay-Rheims for 2 Corinthians 2:10 (drbo.org).

Catechism of the Catholic Church (vatican.va): 816, 838; 1424; 1441, 1442; 1451, 1452, 1456, 1457, 1458; 1461, 1467.

Church Fathers (newadvent.org): Didache 4:14; 14:1 (ANF vol. 7); Ignatius, Philadelphians 8 (ANF vol. 1); Tertullian, On Repentance 9–10 (ANF vol. 3); Cyprian, The Lapsed 28–29 (ANF vol. 5, trans. R. E. Wallis); Ambrose, Concerning Repentance 2.2.12 (NPNF2 vol. 10).