Do you have to confess your sins to a priest or to God?

Answer 1

Catholic AnswerYes, Confession (Penance) is a sacrament, and the only sacrament you can receive if you are not a Catholic is Baptism. Every other sacrament requires that you be a baptised Catholic. In an emergency (danger of death), if you are not Catholic you may request to speak to a Catholic priest.

Answer 2

Roman Catholic AnswerYes, confession of sins is the normal way in which Jesus has set up His church, that you have your sins forgiven. Any unconfessed mortal sin (serious sin) is enough to end you up in hell for eternity - eternally frustrated and separated from God.

Answer 3

Depends on religion, I believe. You shouldn't have to confess them to a priest, but to God in your heart. He forgives you no matter what, but you should feel ashamed of your sins and ask Him for forgiveness anyway.

Answer 4

you can confess to God.x

but some people find it easier to confess 2 to a priest because he is physically there.x

a priest is represents jesus so end of the day its kind of the same thing.

I my self confess to the Lord.x

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."