i had this questions last night with a group of friends who all are catholic (i was raised as a catholic too) and no one could really answer this. so maybe someone here can.

in catholicism its said that if you lead a sinful life you will end up in hell once you die. its also said that a priest is the word of god and what a priest does is held true in heaven. so lets say you lead a really bad life and do alot of sinning, but before you die you see a priest for confession and he forgives all your sins. does that mean that when you pass on you will end up in heaven because a priest forgave you?

i know there probably is no factual answer to this because no one honestly knows what happens when you die but if this truly is the case then wouldnt it mean you could go out, and do all kinds of bad things and it wont matter as long as you confess your sins before dying?

 

I was raised Catholic, but kind of steered off and follow my own religion with the basics of what is right and wrong because I think the churches do what they want nowadays. Personally, I don't believe you can do what you're saying, even though confessing your sins have been said to give you the right to heaven.
I just try not to sin, follow the 10 commandments, and hope that God will forgive me, not some priest.

 

Yes. When a priest says you're forgiven, you are. One of the reasons Martin Luther rebelled against the Catholic Church was the practice of selling forgiveness. If you donated money to the "Church", the priest would forgive you. I say this still goes on in many organized religions. Some call it Tithing, some call it "passing the tray".