BLOG POST | Hey Deacon!

A popular R.C.I.A. question; why is it necessary to confess our sins to a priest?

As we embark on another school year, we also begin the spiritual journey and inquisitive period of R.C.I.A., the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults; recently renamed O.C.I.A, the Order of Christian Initiation of Adults.  As an old timer, calling it something other than R.C.I.A. doesn’t feel right.

One of the questions the R.C.I.A. team hears year-after-year concerns the Church’s teaching on Confession and the need to confess one’s sins to a priest.  It is one of the most common complaints waged against Catholics by Protestants: “Why do you need to go to a priest for confession? Why can’t you go straight to Jesus?”  “Doesn’t sacramental confession deny that we have been justified through faith and made righteous by the redemptive blood of Jesus?” All of these are valid objections, but miss the mark on Catholic theology.

Catholics confess their sins to a priest because that is the method of forgiveness that God established. The Almighty alone has the power to forgive sins and the Son of God granted that authority to His Apostles – the Bishops and priests of the Catholic Church.

When we sin we bring evil and suffering not only to ourselves but to those around us. We offend not only God, but our neighbor and the body of Christ, which is the Church. We ask for forgiveness so we can be healed and be restored to the body of believers who make up God’s people.

While Jesus Christ has already died for our sins we must accept His sacrifice to be open to His forgiveness. Jesus has conferred authority to forgive sins to His disciples, who in turn passed this authority on to others whom they sent out. This authority is conferred to priests that belong to His Church. (John 20:19-23 and 2 Cor 5:18)

It is true that we can ask for forgiveness directly from God. But it is also true that God, in His wisdom and in His goodness and mercy, has created all things in their proper order. He uses instruments and people to be channels of His love and forgiveness.

Through the sacrament of reconciliation and by confessing our sins to a priest, we are given a means by which we can be comforted in our guilt. We are given an opportunity to personally witness how God’s mercy works. And we know we can believe that with wholehearted repentance we are indeed forgiven because we have the promise of Jesus Himself.