Catholic Confession

The sacraments of Catholicism are supposed to display divine grace towards people who partake with the right intentions.  Among those with parallels in Protestant practice are baptism and communion, but one emphasized far more within Catholic theology than in other allegedly Christian frameworks is confession.  The simple act of honestly putting into words that one has sinned and/or which sin is in question is pursued in a somewhat rigid way by wholeheartedly sincere Catholics.  Protestants, in contrast, might not practice it at all.  As is so typically the case, the more popular ideas and lifestyles here fail to match up with the real nature of the issue as addressed in the Bible Protestants and Catholics alike routinely twist for the sake of assumptions, tradition, and personal convenience.

It is not that confession of sin itself is foreign to the Bible's instructions.  In fact, it is quite clear that Christians are to practice it.  James 5:16 does indeed say to confess sins to other Christians.  This, though, is not all that Catholics have in mind when prescribing/encouraging the "sacrament" of confession.  The regular or semi-regular visiting of a priest (not that the typical Catholic necessarily does this even though that is part of Catholicism's tenets) in a special booth to formally confess one's sins is what Catholic-style confession is supposed to look like.  This is confession, yes, but a very particular way of living it out that is not the sole possible way to still honor the instruction.

Nothing in James 5 actually mandates confession to ordained priests, as it only calls for a sort of openness and honesty between spiritual companions about whatever sins they might have committed as individuals, instead of anything remotely resembling a Catholic ritual.  A person could go an entire lifetime without ever once so much as planning to see a priest for confession without sinning because this is not at all among the Biblical moral obligations.  There are multiple ways to legitimately fulfill the obligation to confess sins, and priests are not the only permissible option.  This is one of the only commands of the Bible with a flexible spectrum of application.

Confession in the form practiced by sincere Catholics is just one of the distorted or wholly contrived parts of Catholicism that does not reflect the genuine demands of the Bible.  Is there anything Biblically illicit about choosing to confess to a priest/pastor specifically when set intervals of time elapse?  No, but to think it is necessary to live out confession in this way inescapably adds to the commands of God as forbidden in Deuteronomy 4:2 and condemned by Jesus in Matthew 15:3-9.  This is analogous to how the Bible commands Christians to meet together but in no way prescribes the weekly Sunday morning church application of this that has so widely become mistaken for a core part of Biblical theology.

It is really confession to God and oneself that are the most vital parts of confession: since God's nature is goodness, all sin is committed directly or indirectly against him, and a person needs to be honest with themselves about whatever moral shortcomings he or she has before and regardless of involving others in confession.  Others people are really the least central, least important part of confession.  Though someone could even practice Catholic-style confession while fully realizing it is not Biblically necessary to do so, they would just need to ensure they do not become focused on merely confessing sins to another person that they do not understand or forget that human listeners are the most trivial part of confession.