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>>> Catholicism requires a go-between (of sorts) between the human and the divine ... such as a Priest or the Pope.... But — I am not a Catholic, so I cannot state with certainty exactly what a Catholic believes.

>> No kidding.

Point taken.

I do have a question, though ... and this is an honest question, not an “a-ha, gotcha” thing. Why do Catholics confess to a Priest? As a Protestant, I confess transgressions directly. Why the middle-man?

I hope this is suitably helpful.

The Council of Trent (1551) declares:
As a means of regaining grace and justice, penance was at all times necessary for those who had defiled their souls with any mortal sin. . . . Before the coming of Christ, penance was not a sacrament, nor is it since His coming a sacrament for those who are not baptized. But the Lord then principally instituted the Sacrament of Penance, when, being raised from the dead, he breathed upon His disciples saying: 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained' (John 20:22-23). By which action so signal and words so clear the consent of all the Fathers has ever understood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was communicated to the Apostles and to their lawful successors, for the reconciling of the faithful who have fallen after Baptism. (Sess. XIV, c. i)
Farther on the council expressly states that Christ left priests, His own vicars, as judges (praesides et judices), unto whom all the mortal crimes into which the faithful may have fallen should be revealed in order that, in accordance with the power of the keys, they may pronounce the sentence of forgiveness or retention of sins" (Sess. XIV, c. v)

Here is the Gospel of John:

Joh 20:19 Now when it was late the same day, the first of the week, and the doors were shut, where the disciples were gathered together, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them: Peace be to you.
Joh 20:20 And when he had said this, he shewed them his hands and his side. The disciples therefore were glad, when they saw the Lord.
Joh 20:21 He said therefore to them again: Peace be to you. As the Father hath sent me, I also send you.
Joh 20:22 When he had said this, he breathed on them; and he said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost.
Joh 20:23 Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them: and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.

To get there you have to understand that the Catholic Church is Apostolic. We practice the faith as handed down through the ages from the original Apostles to the priests of today.

Jesus told the Apostles, not the crowd, that those sins that they forgive or bind will be bound or forgiven in Heaven.

Catholics also believe that they can go straight to God to ask for forgiveness and I would say that most have already talked any sin that they realize they have committed with God before they confess it to a priest but if it is a mortal sin you need to confess it to a priest.

I wasn’t Catholic until I was 46, confession is one of the hardest things that I do as a Catholic but I intellectually understand the teaching.

As with all 7 of the sacraments, confession is actually a gift not a chore or a hardship, it is, in layman’s terms, an encounter with the Risen Christ. It is a moment of actual grace.