Your Sins are Forgiven
Objection: “Why do Catholics go to a man to have their sins forgiven.
Only God can forgive sins!”
This is another common accusation directed against Catholics because of
their well-known practice of confessing sins to priests. The insinuation is
that Catholics are really committing a form of idolatry by ignoring God and
preferring instead to go to a man for forgiveness. At the same time, the
Catholic Church is accused of carrying out a function that is proper to God
alone. It is a similar accusation to that which Christ Himself had to endure:
“This man is blaspheming” (St. Matt. 9:3).
No person claiming to be Christian doubts that Christ had the power to
forgive sins. The following incident in the Gospels testifies to this power:
“When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic, Take heart, son; your
sins are forgiven. Then some of the scribes said to themselves, This man is
blaspheming. But Jesus, perceiving their thoughts, said, Why do you think
evil in your hearts? For which is easier, to say, Your sins are forgiven, or
to say, Stand up and walk? But so that you may know that the Son of Man
has authority on earth to forgive sins––he then said to the paralytic––Stand
up, take your bed and go to your home. And he stood up and went to his
home” (St. Matt. 9:2-7).
For those who recognize that the Church is a divine institution founded by
Christ to continue His work of redemption in the world, there is no
difficulty believing that she has the power to forgive sins. It follows that
whatever Christ the Head possesses, His Mystical Body, the Church,
likewise possesses. We see recorded in the Acts of the Apostles the Church
forgiving sins through the administration of Baptism to converts:
“Peter said to them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name
of Jesus Christ so that your sins may be forgiven; and you will receive the
gift of the Holy Spirit” (Acts 2:38).
“Get up, be baptized, and have your sins washed away, calling on his
name” (Acts 22:16).
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