d Saviour Jesus Christ may be summed
up in these words of the Acts: "He went about doing good." He healed the
sick, gave sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, and raised the dead
to life.

The healing of the body, however, was to Him a secondary object. The
healing of the soul was His mission on earth. He frequently called the
attention of His followers to this. For example, He cured the man of the
palsy to prove that as man He had the power to forgive sins. Another
example is when He gives us in the cure of the lepers a figure of sin
and its cure.

Leprosy has always been considered a figure of sin. As leprosy covers
the body and makes it disgusting and frightful to behold, so sin covers
the soul and makes it hideous in the sight of God. The Old Law required
lepers to separate themselves from society until their cure was
certified to by the priests who were appointed for this purpose. Our
Lord has been pleased, in the New Law, to institute a similar method for
the cure of the more fatal leprosy of sin. The spiritual leper, the
sinner, is to show himself to the priest, make known the diseased state
of his soul, and submit to the inspection and treatment of the priest,
who is the divinely appointed physician of the soul. But should we not
go directly to God, since God alone has power to justify us? It is true,
God alone can effect our justification; but He has appointed the priest
to judge in His place and pass sentence in His name. To the priests He
has said: "Whatsoever you shall bind upon earth shall be bound in
heaven, and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed also
in heaven" (_Matt._ xviii. 18); and again: "Whose sins you shall
forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins you shall retain, they are
retained" (_John_ xx. 23). These two texts clearly show that auricular
confession as practised in the Catholic Church was taught by Christ. For
how could the apostles and their successors, the pastors of the Church,
know what sins to bind and retain and what sins to loose and forgive
unless the sins were confessed to them and they were allowed to judge?

No matter how numerous or how great these are, provided they are
confessed with a sincere repentance, they will be forgiven. And they
will be forgiven by the power of the priest. Properly speaking, God
alone has power to forgive sins. But no one will deny that He has power
to confer this power on others. He communicated this power to His
apostles and c