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Dear Oscar,
With the way you worded the question
the answer would be, No. Catholics
do believe that when Jesus was on
earth He established a system through
which He would continue to give His
supernatural Life of grace to people
for the sake of their salvation.
These are His seven sacraments.
In the sacrament of Confession, of
which you speak, Christ offers His
forgiveness for our sins through
the priest whom He uses as His instrument.
God often uses human vessels for
the sake of others, as He did with
Moses and the Old Testament priests
and prophets. So too, Jesus uses
His priests for special moments,
but it is God that we repent to.
To summarize:
- Only God has the power to forgive sins.
- Christ
is God so His Sacrifice makes
it possible for God to forgive
our sins, satisfying the dictates
of eternal justice.
- Christ
established one Church to continue
His Mission so that all may
be saved, and gave the power
to forgive sins in His Name
to His sacred priesthood.
- Anyone who is sincerely sorry for their sins and
resolves not to sin again (with
the help of His grace) can
be forgiven by our all-merciful
God through this sacrament
of Reconciliation. God is good.
Paul
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