You are so very wrong.
Your "religion" requires men to list their sins to another human in the confessional. Why? I can talk to GOD anytime. We are all born sinners and He knows our wrongs. If I do wrong then I talk to God and ask His forgiveness. What makes a mortal man think he is entitled to give out punishment in Gods name? You are all SINNERS for thinking that you have the right to do so. God did not grant you that right. Ancient rules were placed to give CONTROL over man and you have twisted and turned Good Christian Faith until you think that you have the POWER to reign over people who have more faith than you do. I can talk to God anytime I want. I can listen to God anytime I want. I can live by His rules and by His judgement without any intereferance from a man in a dress. The Catholic faith is full of priests who are sinners in the worst form. Children are abused everyday by these "men" using their power in the church to do the devils work.
I pray for all of you catholics who feel the need to answer to anyone but GOD.
"Your "religion" requires men to list their sins to another human in the confessional. Why? I can talk to GOD anytime."
Next time you are advising Jesus on the correct way to set up His Church, be sure to tell Him that He blew it big time when He said the following:
Jn 20,21 "Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when He said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. WHOSE SINS YOU FORGIVE ARE FORGIVEN THEM, AND WHOSE SINS YOU RETAIN ARE RETAINED."
It isn't just the Catholic Church which celebrates the Sacrament of Penance. ALL Churches which are descended from the apostles have this Sacrament - the Orthodox, the Oriental Orthodox, Armenians, Copts, even the Nestorians.
Its only you johnny-come-latelies who would take the Cross out of Christianity for the sake of a comfortable life who have abandoned the precious mysteries which were given by Christ Himself.
Sure, we have far too many evil priests, but all their evil combined is not enough to outweigh the grace of the Holy Spirit acting through a single good confession.
Your comment to Tantumergo is betrays a sorry lack of knowledge of the history of the very Church protestants claim to represent. You are troubled by the sacrament of Confession and say that you can talk to God whenever you wish. Of course you can, but the sacrament of Confession was instituted by Christ so that we might reconcile ourselves to God and be healed. The Orthodox Church bases this on Mat. 9:2-8 and 18:18, 1 John 1:6-10 and John 20:22-23. We view the Church as a sort of spiritual hospital, among other things. In Confession the penitent confesses to God and receives absolution from God. The priest is merely a witness to the confession on behalf of the Church. This is in accordance with the ancient practice of the Church of required, public, confession of sins. Private confession only developed later in the history of the Church.
Your comments on priests using their "power" to lord it over people and even abuse them are true. But to reject the Church because of priestly or hierarchial abuse is incorrect and borders on an ancient heresy called "Donatism". The sacrament of Confession (like the heresy of Donatism) pre-date the rise of protestantism by centuries. Why do you suppose that from the first days of the Church, confession was recognized as a sacrament, according to you wrongly, and it was only after Martin Luther came along that mankind figured out just how wrong it had been all along?
Confession is as old as the faith itself: original Christians who were much closer to the spirit of the faith then some offshoots 1,500 years later in a completely alien culture would profess their sin in front of everyone publicly, because confessions were to be witnessed. When the churches grew and new members came in, some of whom were not koown an unorthodox in their belief, the older church members began to feel uncomfortable professing their sins to everyone, so the confessionals were reduced to a priest, who is your witness.
Like everything esle about Protestants, even the burden of sin and confession of that sin is made easy -- the minimalist approach to salvation.
Your ignorance of the Bible where the power to loose and bind is explicitly given to Apostles is obvious.