If I'm not mistaken, Orthodox believe simply that people should simply confess their sins to the priests but it is God that forgives those sins. Catholics OTOH believe that the "keys to the kingdom" has been given to them and their priest are in a position to forgive sins (whatever you bind on earth shall be...).
Yes, you have correctly stated what Orthodoxy teaches. I was of the understanding that the Latins believed the same thing. Maybe Jo or Alex can enlighten us.
Catholics believe that the priest acts "in the person of Christ" whenever the priest celebrates a sacrament. Thus, in Reconciliation, the priest has been given the power to visibly forgive sins - although it is Christ working through those visible signs to forgive sins. The priest is an "ambassador" of Christ, given this power from the original Apostles, whom Christ commissioned to forgive sins.
"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: 2Cor 5:17-20
Regards
The Orthodox confess to God, and the priest is their witness. God forgives through the priest who is an "icon of Christ."
The confession starts with the words "I confess to God, and before you venerable father, that I have sinned..."