Father Dan Reehil

The church also states that you can have perfect contrition for your sins, which would also bring forth an absolution of your sin.

But to have perfect contrition means you have no attachment to sin anymore.

Very difficult to do, very difficult to measure.

And so I'm always like, it's not that hard.

Just go to confession.

In my church, it's always anonymous.

I'm in one room, you're in another.

There's a screen between us.

I can't see you.

I can hear you, but I don't know who you are.

So it really is more like God's doing it through his priest.

The other reason that the church says we need to do this is because when we sin, it's not just against God, it's against humanity.

as witnessed by Adam and Eve, who dragged us all into this with them.

So through the priest, we're actually getting absolved by God, but also there's coming an absolution of sorts, you could say, or a forgiveness that's also coming from humanity in the person of the priest.

Okay.

You know, in the first centuries, after the churches started being built, confessions were public.

They were public.

You had to go stand on the steps of the church and confess your sins to the priest in front of the whole community, and then he absolved you.

I mean, a lot harder, clearly.

Wow.