Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.” –Matthew 16:19
Why does the Catholic Church want us to confess our sins to a priest? Can we just go straight to God instead?
Catholics do not confess their sins to a priest instead of going straight to God; we confess to a priest who represents God. Jesus clearly desired his apostles and successors (the bishops and priests throughout the centuries) to continue His work of preaching, praying, …..and forgiving sins when we are truly sorry for them as indicated in John 20:21-23 when He said to His apostles, “As the Father has sent me, so I send you…receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.
In order to exercise the power Jesus gave his apostles to forgive or retain sins, they would need to be told the sins by the sinner. This implies confession.
Is a Catholic who confesses his sins to a priest any better off than people who just confess directly to God?
Yes, for several reasons. First, the sinner seeks forgiveness in the manner in which Christ intended. Second, when sins are confessed aloud to another person, he learns a lesson in humility and accountability, which is most likely avoided when he confesses only through private prayer. Third, he receives sacramental graces that help him want to seek Heaven and avoid sin. Fourth, through this sacrament, he hears the words, “I absolve you of your sins” and can be assured that his sins are forgiven, rather than relying on a subjective “feeling”. Finally, he can obtain sound counsel and advice on avoiding the same sins again.
Where does the Bible tell us to confess our sins?
We are instructed to summon the priests of the Church when we are sick (in health or spirit) and they will intercede for us. Furthermore, we are told to actually confess our sins to one another: James 5:14-16 “Is anyone among you sick?* He should summon the presbyters of the church, and they should pray over him and anoint [him] with oil in the name of the Lord, and the prayer of faith will save the sick person, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed any sins, he will be forgiven. Confession and Intercession. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The fervent prayer of a righteous person is very powerful.
1 John 1:5-10 also tells us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us of all unrighteousness.
Did the early Christians confess their sins publicly?
In the early church, publicly known sins (such as apostasy) were often confessed openly in church, though private confession to a priest was always an option for privately committed sins. Still, confession was not just something done in silence to God alone, but something done “in church” as we see in the writings of the early Church Fathers:
Didache 4:14, 14:1 {A.D. 70} – “Confess your sins in church, and do not go up to your prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life…On the Lord’s Day gather together, break bread, and give thanks, after confessing your transgressions so that your sacrifice may be pure.” 4:14, 14:1
The Letter of Barnabas – “You shall judge righteously. You shall not make a schism, but you shall pacify those that contend by bringing them together. You shall confess your sins. You shall not go to prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of light.” (Letter of Barnabas 19 — A.D. 74)
Ignatius of Antioch – “For as many as are of God and of Jesus Christ are also with the bishop. And as many as shall, in the exercise of penance, return into the unity of the Church, these, too, shall belong to God, that they may live according to Jesus Christ.” (Letter to the Philadelphians 3 — A.D. 110) “For where there is division and wrath, God does not dwell. 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.” (ibid. 8)
Origen – “[A filial method of forgiveness], albeit hard and laborious [is] the remission of sins through penance, when the sinner . . . does not shrink from declaring his sin to a priest of the Lord and from seeking medicine, after the manner of him who say, “I said, to the Lord, I will accuse myself of my iniquity.” ” (Homilies in Leviticus 2:4 — A.D. 248)
Basil the Great – “It is necessary to confess our sins to those to whom the dispensation of God’s mysteries is entrusted. Those doing penance of old are found to have done it before the saints. It is written in the Gospel that they confessed their sins to John the Baptist [Matt. 3:6], but in Acts [19:18] they confessed to the apostles.” (Rules Briefly Treated 288 — A.D. 374)
John Chrysostom – “Priests have received a power which God has given neither to angels nor to archangels. It was said to them: “Whatsoever you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose, shall be loosed.” Temporal rulers have indeed the power of binding: but they can only bind the body. Priests, in contrast, can bind with a bond which pertains to the soul itself and transcends the very heavens. Did [God] not give them all the powers of heaven? “Whose sins you shall forgive,” he says, “they are forgiven them; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” The Father has given all judgment to the Son. And now I see the Son placing all this power in the hands of men [Matt. 10:40; John 20:21-23]. They are raised to this dignity as if they were already gathered up to heaven.” (The Priesthood 3:5 — A.D. 387)
Ambrose of Milan – “For those to whom [the right of binding and loosing] has been given, it is plain that either both are allowed, or it is clear that neither is allowed. Both are allowed to the Church, neither is allowed to heresy. For this right has been granted to priests only.” (Penance 1:1 — A.D. 388)
Irenaeus (A.D. 180) – the disciples of the Gnostic heretic Marcus “have deluded many women. . . . Their consciences have been branded as with a hot iron. Some of these women make a public confession, but others are ashamed to do this, and in silence, as if withdrawing themselves from the hope of the life of God, they either apostatize entirely or hesitate between the two courses” (Against Heresies 1:22).
Origen (241), Cyprian (251), and Aphraates (337) are clear in saying confession is to be made to a priest. (In their writings the whole process of penance is termedexomologesis, which means confession—the confession was seen as the main part of the sacrament.) Cyprian writes that the forgiveness of sins can take place only “through the priests.” Ambrose says “this right is given to priests only.” Pope Leo I says absolution can be obtained only through the prayers of the priests. These utterances are not taken as novel, but as reminders of accepted belief. We have no record of anyone objecting, of anyone claiming these men were pushing an “invention.”
I don’t have any mortal sins. Can I just go to Communion each week for remission of my venial sins?
While the Eucharist does remit venial sins, the Priest can give you advice and counsel regarding avoiding those venial sins when he hears them. Confession, and the graces that we receive in this sacrament, help us to purge sinfulness from our souls in this life. We are lead to examine our conscience, acknowledge our failures, and resolve to improve ourselves. Would we rather wait for all our sinfulness to be purged from us in the fire of purgatory? In the confessional, we are told authoritatively that our sins are forgiven, just as Jesus told those around him. Do we hear those words of mercy that Jesus wants us to hear just by receiving the Eucharist? No. Our faith calls us to actively seek to perfect ourselves. Confession provides that gift. Those who seek it know the beauty of God’s gift to us.
What is the difference between a Venial sin and a Mortal sin?
The following information and more can be viewed at: http://www.saintaquinas.com/mortal_sin.html
All sin is an offense against God and a rejection of his perfect love
and justice. Yet, Jesus makes a distinction between two types of sins.
We call the most serious and grave sins, mortal sins. Mortal sins
destroy the grace of God in the heart of the sinner. By their very grave
nature, a mortal sin cuts our relationship off from God and turns man
away from his creator. St. Paul’s letter to the Hebrews tell us that “if
we sin willfully after having the knowledge of the truth, there is now
left no sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:26). The second type of sin,
venial sin, that of less grave matter, does not cut us off from Christ.
However, venial sin does weaken grace in the soul and damages our
relationship with God. A person who frequently indulges in venial sin is
very likely to collapse into mortal sin if they persist in their evil
ways.
So what kind of Sins are Mortal?
In order for a sin to be mortal, it must meet three conditions:
• Mortal sin is a sin of grave matter
• Mortal sin is committed with full knowledge of the sinner
• Mortal sin is committed with deliberate consent of the sinner
This means that mortal sins cannot be done “accidentally.” A person who commits a mortal sin is one who knows that their sin is wrong, but still deliberately commits the sin anyway. This means that mortal sins are “premeditated” by the sinner and thus are truly a rejection of God’s law and love.
The first condition, that a mortal sin is of grave matter, means that certain premeditated offenses against God are more severe than others. We know that some sins are graver than others (e.g. it is a graver sin to murder someone than to lie to someone). St. John tells us, “If anyone sees his brother sinning, if the sin is not deadly, he should pray to God and he will give him life. This is only for those whose sin is not deadly. There is such a thing as deadly sin, about which I do not say that you should pray. All wrongdoing is sin, but there is sin that is not deadly.” (1 John 5:16-17). Thus St. John distinguishes between mortal and venial sin. Jesus also warns us that “Anyone who does not remain in me will be thrown out like a branch and wither; people will gather them and throw them into a fire and they will be burned” (John 15:6).
What kinds of offenses against God constitute “grave matter”?
In the Bible, St. Paul gives us a list of grave sins. He states that anyone who commits these sins shall not enter the kingdom of God. “Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God” (Galatians 5:19-20). Paul also tells the Corinthians, “know you no that the unjust shall not possess the kingdom of God? Do not err: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, Nor the effeminate, nor liers with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards nor railers, nor extortioners shall possess the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10). These sins constitute grave matter, and if they are committed willingly and with full consent, constitute mortal sin.
The Church also tells us that the sins of anger, blasphemy, envy,
hatred, malice, murder, neglect of Sunday obligation, sins against faith
(incredulity against God or heresy), sins against hope (obstinate
despair in the hope for salvation and/or presumption that oneself can
live without God or be saved by one’s own power) and sins against love
(indifference towards charity, ingratitude, and/or hatred of God) also
constitute grave matter. This list of grave sins, is based on Jesus
Christ’s interpretation of the gravity of the Ten Commandments. Grave
sins can be classed as sins against God, neighbor and self, and can
further be divided into carnal and spiritual sins (CCC 1853).
Four other sins are considered grave also. These sins not only offend
God, but men as well. Thus these four sins are called “the sins that cry
to heaven for vengeance” and are likewise mortal sins. These grave sins
are:
• The voluntary murder (Genesis 4:10)
• The sin of impurity against nature –Sodomy and homosexual relations (Genesis 18:20)
• Taking advantage of the poor (Exodus 2:23)
• Defrauding the workingman of his wages (James 5:4)
Finally, the capital sins are also considered grave matter. These sins are vices and are defined as contrary to the Christian virtues of holiness. They are pride, avarice, envy, wrath, lust, gluttony, and sloth (acedia).