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The one-minute script
"Only God can forgive sins. Why tell a priest?" Catholics agree with the first half. The Catechism says it in three words: only God forgives sins.
But look at what Jesus does. In Mark chapter two, people object, "who can forgive sins but God alone?" And Jesus answers that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.
Then on Easter night, in John chapter twenty, he breathes on the apostles and says: "Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." You can't forgive or retain what you've never heard. That's why confession is spoken out loud.
So the priest isn't a rival to God. He's what Jesus chose to use, the way he chose water for baptism and bread for the Eucharist. God forgives. The priest says the words Christ gave him.
And there's one more gift. You get to hear it, out loud: you are forgiven.
Fair to the other side
Most Protestant Christians read John 20:23 as the authority to proclaim forgiveness through the gospel, given to the whole Church, rather than a sacrament administered by ordained priests, and they confess directly to God (1 John 1:9). Many also practise confession to one another (James 5:16). The Catholic reading rests on the words being spoken to the apostles specifically and on the Church's practice since the early centuries.
Sources
- Mark 2:7-10
- John 20:21-23
- James 5:16
- Catechism of the Catholic Church 1441, 1461
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Only God forgives sins, and Catholics agree. So why confess to a priest? John 20 in sixty seconds.
On-screen text: Catechism 1441: "Only God forgives sins" · Mark 2:10 · John 20:23 · Catechism 1461