Ask a Deacon: Why Confess to a Priest?
Q: “Why do I need to confess sins to a priest? Why can’t I just confess directly to God?”
This is a very common question, and it is entirely reasonable. Yes, one can confess directly to God. He’s God, after all. But by leaving it there, we ignore a crucial part of what it means to be a Christian. We should start with Jesus’ teaching.
The Catholic Church’s Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation come from the Scriptures. There we find Jesus telling Peter that he has the power to bind and loose (Mt. 16:19). We see him say the same thing to the apostles more broadly later (Mt 18:18) and explicitly say to the apostles “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them, and whose sins you retain are retained.” (Jn. 20:23) So, Jesus clearly intended for there to be a human intermediary between the sinner and God at some point. Then there is James 5:16 which reads, “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed.” In the previous verse, St. James is talking about “the presbyters of the church” doing the healing, not just anyone.
Still, at least for me, quoting Scriptural passages is not always dispositive. Also convincing for me has been to ask how the early Church interpreted the Scripture. They were closest to the time when the Scriptures were written. Surely, they understood the original meaning. From them we know that our present-day understanding was theirs as well. A document known as The Didache, which dates back to the late first century, says that on Sundays Christians should “gather yourselves together, and break bread, and give thanksgiving after having confessed your transgressions, that your sacrifice may be pure.” So, before they could receive the Eucharist, they would confess their sins. We also know from later documents, that the penitent would have to confess his or her sins to the bishop and in front of the whole congregation. It was thanks to Irish monks that we now have the more discreet confessions in private. Thank you, Ireland!
But the old way of confessing sins drives home the point that is missed in the question. As Christians we believe that there is no such thing as a private sin. Every sin hurts not just me and my relationship with God but the whole Body of Christ because through baptism I’m a member of that body. We say that, in the context of a sacrament, the priest acts in persona Christi capitis, that is “in the person of Christ, the head,” the head of the body, the body of the Church. And so when we confess to a priest, we’re confessing not just to God, but we’re confessing to and asking forgiveness from the entire Church which we have harmed by our sin. This is why confession used to take place in the open. And this is in part why we still have to confess to a priest.
To claim we only need to confess to God is to ignore not just the Scriptures, and the practice of the early Church, but also ignores our obligation to the Church, the Body of Christ, our fellow Christians whom we are duty bound to love.
If you’re interested in more and fuller answers to questions like this, I teach a Catholic 101 class for college students on Monday nights starting at 6:30pm. After that class I’ll have Catholic 201, on Catholic moral theology, starting at 7:45pm. Both classes start on September 25th, so come check them out.