CONFESSION TO A CATHOLIC PRIEST

Confession to Roman Catholic Priest: personal and Biblical analysis by Brian Donovan, Peter Ruckman's assistant pastor at Bible Baptist Church, Pensacola. FOR FURTHER READING: "The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional" By CHARLES CHINIQUY (A former priest warns of the dangers of the confessional) Los Angeles Times, December 12, 1984, quotes John Paul II as saying: "Don't go to God for forgiveness of sins: come to me." !!! http://www.biblebelievers.com/chiniquy/priest_woman_contents.html BIBLE BAPTIST INFO http://www.kjv1611.org/contents.htm (link given for information purposes only - not authorized) Auricular confession began as a dogma in 1215 under Pope Innocent III (Council of Lateran) - and yet not a single trace of auricular confession as a dogma can be found prior to that year! Famous Catholic Saints who never went to confession and never heard confession: St Mary the Egyptian, St Cyprian, Gregory of Nyssa, St Basil, St Ambrose, St Martin of Tours, St Jerome, St Chrysostom, St Augustine Jerome's advice to clergy: "Never sit in secret, alone, in a retired place, with a female who is alone with you. If she has any particular thing to tell you, let her take the female attendant of the house, a young girl, or widow, or a married woman. She cannot be so ignorant of the rules of human life as to expect to have you as the only one to whom she can trust those things" Augustine: "What have I to do with men that they should hear my confessions, as if they were able to heal my infirmities? The human race is very curious to know another person's life, but very lazy to correct it." Nestorius: "We do not request you to go to confess your sins to any of your fellow men, but only to God" Bellarmin: "Certain women were in the habit of going to the heretic marcion to confess their sins to him. But, as he was smitten with their beauty, and they loved him also, they abandoned themselves to sin with him." Basil: "I close my eyes, and confess my sins in the secret of my heart. Before thee, O God, I pour out my sighs, and thou alone art the witness." John Chrysostom: "You need no witness of your confession. Secretly acknowledge your sins, and let God alone hear you." Dr Erasmus: "But our divines, not advisedly considering what the old doctors do say, are deceived, that which they say of general and open confession, they wrest, by and by, to this secret and privy kind of confession." Father Chiniquy: "When Holy Fathers of the first centuries speak of "confession" they invariably understand "public confessions" and not auricular confession. There is much difference between such public confessions and auricular confessions, as there is between heaven and hell, between God and his great enemy, Satan." ++++ Église Catholique Katholische Kirche Καθολική εκκλησία Chiesa Cattolica Igreja Вселенскаяа церковь Iglesia Católica Katholieke Kerk Sacrament of Penance good confession