SusiQ,
One needs to show Apostolic succession back to Peter, according to you. Isn’t the confession of Peter’s doctrine, which he received from Christ Himself, that a)is most important, and, b)is a requisite for true apostolic succession? St. Peter advocated the belief that baptism saves. Is the Roman Catholic teaching on baptism that it forgives only original sin? Just curious.
Sincerely, and truly Catholic Lutheran
I believe that is true. After Baptism, the young Catholic is educated in the Faith along the way, and receives the other Sacraments including the Sacrament of Penance, which is how we face our failings and find forgiveness.
Sure anyone can ask forgiveness of Jesus at any time, but as humans, we tend to justify our behavior along the way, and can easily fall into sinful ways, if we are not made to face those behaviors and admit them. This is the beauty of Sacrament of Penance. We have to admit, in front of the priest, the bad things we've done, or the sinful attitudes we've developed, in order to truly face them. Through the words and blessings from the priest, we obtain Absolution for those sins. We may fail time and time again, but we have that stopgap measure to keep us from walking too far away from God. He'll never leave us, but we can easily lose sight of Him, if we're not careful about the things we do.