Opponents argue that allowing Catholic priests to marry would increase vocations and reduce sexual abuse in the Church because priests wouldn’t have to sacrifice the natural human desire to procreate. However, these arguments misunderstand the Church’s long-standing reasons for not permitting priests to marry.
Catholics need to go to a priest for confession because, at that moment, the priest acts in the person of Christ. He is a “servant of God’s forgiveness” and a conduit for the grace of forgiveness between God and man (Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC: 1466). In that sense, Catholics do still confess their sins directly to God.
Since it's Lent, we asked Father Dindo Billote all about the season.
Many of our Evangelical friends often ask, “Why do Catholics pray to Mary?” From their perspective, it looks as though Catholics are placing Mary on a par with God with all the statues, processions and devotions we have in her honor...
