Okay . . .

I can't stress enough to anyone who wonders about the strange practices of Catholicism how utterly sane we are as a religion. I take as case in point the sacrament of penance. If you are a non-Catholic Christian, you probably believe that you can personally, in your own prayer, confess your sins directly to God and be forgiven. While I take no position as to how God feels about this, I guarantee you that on the human level, our way is better. Spiritually, psychologically and medicinally better. Once you understand that the priest has authority to do what he's doing, that he's not just making it up, you can then walk into the confessional, pour your heart out to God's representative on earth, and walk out cleansed.

And, guess what? It's in the Bible! The idea of both Apostolic succession and the delegation of authority to forgive are right smack dab in the heart of the gospels. It's true.

You can look it up.