Did he say that to the priests? No. In fact he abolished the priesthood.
If you accept that this statement is in fact a declaration that the Catholic priest has been granted the power to keep God from forgiving your sins by retaining them in confession, then you are arguing that God created a power for child molesters to threaten children with literal and unreversible eternal damnation by simply retaining their sins unless and until they do something wicked and nasty with the man to whom this power has been granted.
You really think the Priest has that kind of power over the laity? The laity has obviously been told that this is the case. I suspect that the priests who have molested children have used this power for that purpose.
-A8
You are failing to distinguish the two meanings of "priest" in English. Our Lord did abolish the hiereus priesthood of the Old Testament. But the words concerning the forgiveness and retention of sins was addressed to the Apostles whose office was continued in the episkopos and prebuteros priesthood of the Catholics and Orthodox of today.
If you accept that this statement is in fact a declaration that the Catholic priest has been granted the power to keep God from forgiving your sins by retaining them in confession, then you are arguing that God created a power for child molesters to threaten children with literal and unreversible eternal damnation by simply retaining their sins unless and until they do something wicked and nasty with the man to whom this power has been granted.
You really think the Priest has that kind of power over the laity? The laity has obviously been told that this is the case. I suspect that the priests who have molested children have used this power for that purpose.
I must say that I find this highly offensive and unworthy of Christian discourse. The vast majority of Catholic priest had nothing to do with child molestation and find it as disgusting as you. Nor does the fact that a very small minority of priest have abused their authority negate the Christ given authority of the Biblical office of presbuteros. Nearly all the Davidic kings, including David himself, abused their authority as king. Yet they were still true kings, God's anointed. If you are uncomfortable with the idea that a episkopos or presbuteros can retain sin then your beef is with our Lord Jesus Christ, not with the Church.