Karl Adam on Confession

This past week I had to read Karl Adam's book "The Spirit of Catholicism" for an Ecumenical Dialogue theology course I'm taking.

In discussing confession he writes the following paragraph:

"The Catholic sacramental idea, the idea of a divine reality sacramentally presented, shows its power of moral renewal not only in Mass and the Holy Eucharist, but also and not least in Confession. The Catholic knows that the preist does not hear confessions in his own right but as the representative of God, and that whatever he binds or looses on earth in the name of Jesus will be bound and loosed in heaven also, and this knowledge gives confession its deep seriousness, its absolute truthfulness and its bracing power. In every good confession the holiest victories are won by the power of conscience, by love for purity and goodness, by desire of God and of peace of soul. Confession has given new courage and new confidence and a fresh start in life to millions of men. . . in the sacrament of Confession is no mere expression of a hope, but is a consoling actuality." (p.188-189)