I confess my sins to God through a priest. I have such a cleansed feeling afterward. Jesus gave the disciples the power to forgive sins through the Holy Spirit, and that power has been passed on through the Church to the priests.
22And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
23"If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained."
John 20:22-23