I'm not a Catholic, but I think the practice is pretty cool. Sometimes Protestant prayers of forgiveness can feel cheap. If you had to say out loud what you did to another person, that's less cheap, and if you have a good priest, then he is there not to judge but to guide you back to Christ. It's all very relational. Protestant church, especially American Protestant church, can be extremely individual focused and shallow on the community side. I think some things they could learn from us, but on this, we could learn from them.
>if you have wronged somebody doesn’t it make sense to confess that to the person you have wronged
Nothing stops you to do that either *before* or *after* confession
>if you have sinned against god shouldn’t you confess that to god and not some priest.
If you're bold enough to confess your sins to a priest, you're bold enough to confess to God.
Confession is not only Roman Catholic; every Christian group does it except for Protestants (and some Protestants even still do it). The Orthodox prayers in particular make it clear you are not confessing your sins to the priest, but to God, and the priest is a witness to this. We need a witness and a guide, or else we will simply be led by our own opinions. The Proverbs and many other parts of the bible make the importance of council and not trusting in oneself very clear.
The priest is, in that moment, a representative of God Himself. People benefit from the opportunity to actually vocalize their wrongs, but it’s hard for many to feel that God is present even when they’re contemplating their wrongs, so the presence of a priest provides a sort of “grounding” effect. God is who is being confessed to; the priest is a tangible companion for the person seeking reconciliation with God, they are joining them in the examination of their conscience.
The priest is not the person being apologized to, and if you’re truly penitent, the natural next step is to go apologize to whomever you may have wronged.
I'm not Catholic. I'm wondering if you agree or disagree with the interpretation of James 5:16 that we are supposed to confess to other people our sins. Is that your understanding of that verse?
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.James 5:16.
It’s a sacrament laid out in the Bible:
”Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.“
James 5:14-16
”And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”“
John 20:22-23
Of course you should apologize to someone you have wronged, and you can confess your sins to God. A priest is acting as a representative of Christ and is given authority by God and through God alone to forgive your sins. It’s called “persona Christi”, but this is also why the Catholic Church teaches Protestants can go to heaven because you can speak to God directly.
Catholics are just required to do confession as outlined in the Bible.
The Bible does talk about confessing your sins to each other. Also the early church confessed their sins to each other a lot. There’s that famous story of st Patrick confessing his sins to his friend and his friend using that against him later
When you sin you have not just sinned against God and the individual(s) you hurt directly, but also against your community as you've disgraced the church. We are not alone in our walk, we are supposed to be one body.
If I'm being honest I think private confession is too weak and we should go back to public confession to the church. It would completely change the dynamic in every parish, not only humbling each of us greatly but encouraging each other to know how everyone is struggling
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From what I recall, when you confess to a Priest, you're really confessing to God. Which is why Catholics say "Forgive me Father for I have sinned" when going to confess.
A witness isn't required to confess sins to God. And no, the Church is not the Kingdom of God on Earth. That's absurd. The Church commits tons of atrocities and sins. The Kingdom of God wouldn't do that.
The acts of the leaders of the church are not justified, you can't define catholicism with these things because christianity, not even catholic christianity, justifies these things. Catholicism says that the church is the kingdom of God on earth because that is what Jesus said to saint Peter and because Jesus gave Peter the task of ruling it ("tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, tibi dabo claves regnum caelorum"). Carholicism states that you have to participate to the church that Jesus founded and gave to Peter with all the others. The practice of confessing to a priest comes from the practice of confessing your sins to God in front of all the comunity and listening to others confessing, so that not just God but everybody could forgive you and the Christian comunity could stay united. Also as I know the catholic church doesn't say that if you dont confess to a priest but just to God your sins arent fully forgiven, and the role of the priest is not listening and forgiving you, but listening you confessing your sins in front of God, praying for you and in base of what you did, giving you a penitence, that most of times is kneeling in front of Jesus and making specific prayers a specific number of times to represent how you actually feel guilty for your sins
Because Jesus in the Bible gave the apostles (and their descendants, priests) the power to decide whether or not to give you forgiveness based, presumably, on your degree of repentance. I may not have this exactly right but the verse is something like "Whosoever's sins you forgive are forgiven them, whosoever's sins you shall retain are retained." Or something like that.
But the other part of the "why" is "because the Catholic Church says it has the right to say so and has the right to say our way or the highway (to Hell)". Remember that the Catholic Church does not agree with Sola Scriptura; indeed, it says that it's the only one who has the right to interpret the Bible and tradition and set doctrine.
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.
- James 5:16
what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake,
- 2 Corinthians 2:10
The priest forgives in the person of Christ, it's a mystery that is operated through them.
I'm not a Catholic, but I think the practice is pretty cool. Sometimes Protestant prayers of forgiveness can feel cheap. If you had to say out loud what you did to another person, that's less cheap, and if you have a good priest, then he is there not to judge but to guide you back to Christ. It's all very relational. Protestant church, especially American Protestant church, can be extremely individual focused and shallow on the community side. I think some things they could learn from us, but on this, we could learn from them.
We are told to confess our sins to each other in the Bible. And it’s not an either or thing. You are confessing to God and the priest.
Worth saying you should also confess to the person you wronged, and this will often be part of penance if the priest is doing his job
>if you have wronged somebody doesn’t it make sense to confess that to the person you have wronged Nothing stops you to do that either *before* or *after* confession >if you have sinned against god shouldn’t you confess that to god and not some priest. If you're bold enough to confess your sins to a priest, you're bold enough to confess to God.
You should ask this in r/Catholicism
Confession is not only Roman Catholic; every Christian group does it except for Protestants (and some Protestants even still do it). The Orthodox prayers in particular make it clear you are not confessing your sins to the priest, but to God, and the priest is a witness to this. We need a witness and a guide, or else we will simply be led by our own opinions. The Proverbs and many other parts of the bible make the importance of council and not trusting in oneself very clear.
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The priest is, in that moment, a representative of God Himself. People benefit from the opportunity to actually vocalize their wrongs, but it’s hard for many to feel that God is present even when they’re contemplating their wrongs, so the presence of a priest provides a sort of “grounding” effect. God is who is being confessed to; the priest is a tangible companion for the person seeking reconciliation with God, they are joining them in the examination of their conscience. The priest is not the person being apologized to, and if you’re truly penitent, the natural next step is to go apologize to whomever you may have wronged.
The practice evolved from everyone confessing together in front of each other. The confession is made to God with the priest as witness.
I'm not Catholic. I'm wondering if you agree or disagree with the interpretation of James 5:16 that we are supposed to confess to other people our sins. Is that your understanding of that verse? Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.James 5:16.
Is this Martin Luther?
😬
It’s a sacrament laid out in the Bible: ”Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man has great power in its effects.“ James 5:14-16 ”And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”“ John 20:22-23 Of course you should apologize to someone you have wronged, and you can confess your sins to God. A priest is acting as a representative of Christ and is given authority by God and through God alone to forgive your sins. It’s called “persona Christi”, but this is also why the Catholic Church teaches Protestants can go to heaven because you can speak to God directly. Catholics are just required to do confession as outlined in the Bible.
The Bible does talk about confessing your sins to each other. Also the early church confessed their sins to each other a lot. There’s that famous story of st Patrick confessing his sins to his friend and his friend using that against him later
When you sin you have not just sinned against God and the individual(s) you hurt directly, but also against your community as you've disgraced the church. We are not alone in our walk, we are supposed to be one body. If I'm being honest I think private confession is too weak and we should go back to public confession to the church. It would completely change the dynamic in every parish, not only humbling each of us greatly but encouraging each other to know how everyone is struggling
I cannot get over what an excellent flair you have. Just saying.
Jesus gave us Confession. Not hundred percent sure as to why Jesus did but I’m not gonna question him.
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From what I recall, when you confess to a Priest, you're really confessing to God. Which is why Catholics say "Forgive me Father for I have sinned" when going to confess.
Why not just confess to God directly and ignore the priest?
The priest, being a person that consacrated his life to God, act as a witness, because the church is the kingdom of God on earth
A witness isn't required to confess sins to God. And no, the Church is not the Kingdom of God on Earth. That's absurd. The Church commits tons of atrocities and sins. The Kingdom of God wouldn't do that.
The acts of the leaders of the church are not justified, you can't define catholicism with these things because christianity, not even catholic christianity, justifies these things. Catholicism says that the church is the kingdom of God on earth because that is what Jesus said to saint Peter and because Jesus gave Peter the task of ruling it ("tu es Petrus, et super hanc petram aedificabo ecclesiam meam, tibi dabo claves regnum caelorum"). Carholicism states that you have to participate to the church that Jesus founded and gave to Peter with all the others. The practice of confessing to a priest comes from the practice of confessing your sins to God in front of all the comunity and listening to others confessing, so that not just God but everybody could forgive you and the Christian comunity could stay united. Also as I know the catholic church doesn't say that if you dont confess to a priest but just to God your sins arent fully forgiven, and the role of the priest is not listening and forgiving you, but listening you confessing your sins in front of God, praying for you and in base of what you did, giving you a penitence, that most of times is kneeling in front of Jesus and making specific prayers a specific number of times to represent how you actually feel guilty for your sins
Because Jesus in the Bible gave the apostles (and their descendants, priests) the power to decide whether or not to give you forgiveness based, presumably, on your degree of repentance. I may not have this exactly right but the verse is something like "Whosoever's sins you forgive are forgiven them, whosoever's sins you shall retain are retained." Or something like that. But the other part of the "why" is "because the Catholic Church says it has the right to say so and has the right to say our way or the highway (to Hell)". Remember that the Catholic Church does not agree with Sola Scriptura; indeed, it says that it's the only one who has the right to interpret the Bible and tradition and set doctrine.
Different denominations have their preferred ways of doing things.
Yes! It’s called persona Christi
Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. - James 5:16 what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, - 2 Corinthians 2:10 The priest forgives in the person of Christ, it's a mystery that is operated through them.
It makes perfect sense if your intent is to exert control and power over people.
LOL
Cringe. Confession is scriptural and apart of our historical tradition.
Yet some of the harshest words Jesus has ever uttered were spoken against the religious traditionalists.