What is a Catholic confession box?

Answer 1

In John 20:22, Christ breathes on His disciples and says 'receove the Holy Spirit and if you forgive people's sins, they are forgiven '.

Again James 5:16...also tells us to confess our sins to one and another.

Of course we are God's children and can confess to him. The sacrament of penance is an outward sign of an inward grace.

AnswerConfession is a sacrament that allows Catholics to be cleansed of sins. At baptism, Catholics believe that all stain of Original and actual (personal) sins are erased as well as the temporal punishment due for them. The baptized thus enters the state of grace, or union with God. Catholics, however, believe that the state of grace can be lost through mortal sin. The sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ in order that those who had fallen into sin might confess their sins and receive absolution (forgiveness), and thus again attain the state of grace. Catholics confess both their venial and mortal sins, although they are only obliged to confess the mortal ones to a Catholic priest who is ordained in Christ as His representative and minister through which Christ Himself acts. Catholics are encouraged to go to Confession regularly as the sacrament not only purifies the soul but also gives it special graces to withstand temptations and grow in Christ. Roman Catholic AnswerConfession, reconciliation, or penance - all names for the same thing - is a sacrament that was ordained by Our Blessed Lord, Himself, to give us grace and help us attain heaven. It is the only normal way that Our Blessed Lord left us to be forgiven of our mortal sins (mortal sins are serious sins that completely kill the life of God in you - one mortal sin is more than sufficient to forfeit heaven and plunge you into hell for eternity).

Answer 2

So they can get their sins forgiven

http://www.saintaquinas.com/confess_essay.html

ANSWER:

The practice of confession in the early church was to confess our sins -- both mortal & venial -- to the priest and to the entire Catholic community. Over the years, private confessionals were created to offer Catholics privacy as we confess our sins to a priest who serves as the voice of Christ and administer of the Sacrament -- which bestows healing and strengthening grace upon us -- for Christ.

What happened is that Christians stopped confessing ALL their sins and usually it was the most serious (mortal) they refused to confess, publicly ergo the need for private confessionals. The objective is to be absolved of our sins. If public confession hinders that, then make it private.

Our Lord knew that we are a visual, auditory creature. He knew WE needed to confess with our mouths -- get rid of our sins and the accompanying GUILT -- and WE needed HEAR the words of absolution in order to be truly free from the chains of sin.

Theologically, the Church is the people. When we commit sin, it affects/stains the entire body of Church, not merely ourselves. We have committed sin against God but also against His Bride, the Church (the people of Christ). Thus, the priest also serves as the representatives of the Church (the Catholic Christian community) too.

Answer 3

It's a small room that is divided into two parts by a wall. There will usually be a hole in the wall that a veil or a screen will cover up. This enables the priest to sit on one side of the screen and not see the person on the other side, but still hear them. This is for confession, where a Catholic will repent their sins to God and say a series of prayers while asking forgiveness. Through the power administered through him by God, the priest will absolve their sins and sometimes give them advice as to how they can over come their faults.

Answer 4

This is the normal way in which Jesus has set up His Church to forgive sins. Penance is one of the seven sacraments, and confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament:

from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1455 The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to 'God and to the communion of the church in order to make a new future possible.

1456 Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly.

When Christ's faithful strive to confess all the sins that they can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon. But those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest, "for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know."

Answer 5

Roman Catholic AnswerThis is the normal way in which Jesus has set up His Church to forgive sins. Penance is one of the seven sacraments, and confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament:

from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:

1455 The confession (or disclosure) of sins, even from a simply human point of view, frees us and facilitates our reconciliation with others. Through such an admission man looks squarely at the sins he is guilty of, takes responsibility for them, and thereby opens himself again to 'God and to the communion of the church in order to make a new future possible.

1456 Confession to a priest is an essential part of the sacrament of Penance: "All mortal sins of which penitents after a diligent self-examination are conscious must be recounted by them in confession, even if they are most secret and have been committed against the last two precepts of the Decalogue; for these sins sometimes wound the soul more grievously and are more dangerous than those which are committed openly.

When Christ's faithful strive to confess all the sins that they can remember, they undoubtedly place all of them before the divine mercy for pardon. But those who fail to do so and knowingly withhold some, place nothing before the divine goodness for remission through the mediation of the priest, "for if the sick person is too ashamed to show his wound to the doctor, the medicine cannot heal what it does not know."

Answer 6

Roman Catholic Answer

Basically, Catholics go to Confession with a priest because that is how God set it up for our sins to be forgiven, and Jesus, the apostles, and their successors told us to. When God establishes a way of doing something, one would be wise to obey Him.

from Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942

825. We Protestants believe that God alone can forgive sin.

And that is the Catholic teaching also. But the question concerns the way in which God has chosen to administer that forgiveness. We Catholics add that God can delegate His power if He wishes, just as the supreme authority in the state can delegate a judge to administer justice. Would you deny to God that power?

826. But can you prove that God did delegate that power to men?

Yes, Christ was God, and in St. Jn. XX., 21-23 we read these remarkable words, "As the Father hath sent Me I also send you. When He said this He breathed on them; and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." Now Christ's mission was to destroy sin, and He gave that same mission to His Apostles. Knowing that their merely human power as men was quite insufficient, He gave them a special communication of the Holy Spirit for this special work. To say that Christ did not confer a true power to forgive sins is to rob the whole ceremony and the words of Christ of any real meaning. And it was obviously a power to be exercised, Christians applying to the Apostles for forgiveness.

828. I believe that the Apostles received the power, but it was for them only and has not been handed on in the Church.

Christ commissioned His Church to teach all nations till the end of the world. The Apostles had to hand on all essential powers to their successors. And the conditions of salvation must be the same for us as for the first Christians. If those subject to the Apostles had to obtain forgiveness from their fellow men, there is no reason why we should be exempt. We share the same privileges as the early Christians and must have the same obligations. Till the Reformation all Christians went to confession. In the 4th century we find St. Ambrose defending Confession by saying that if a man can forgive sin by baptizing, he claims nothing greater when he claims the power to forgive sin through the Sacrament of Penance. That Priests possessed such power was Christian doctrine in his time and is still the doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Greek Church, which broke away from the Catholic Church in the ninth century, has retained this Apostolic practice. Protestantism gave up the practice in the 16th century because it was uncomfortable and mortifying. But once admit such a principle, and one could abolish every uncomfortable commandment of God.

　

Answer 7

To confess that we have sinned and to ask for God's forgiveness. The priest gives absolution to the person who repents.

Answer 8

Because he is the only one who has the power from God to give us absolution for our sins.