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One may confess privately to God, but the [[Bible]] calls on believers to confess to each other, and many denominations--especially the ones named above--expect member to confess their sins to a priest so that he can absolve the penitent of his sins or reassure him of God's forgiveness. In the Catholic Church, the penitent is customarily given a penance (certain prayers) to be performed so that there will be a sense of reparation for sin and to remove some of the temporal punishment consequent to sin.
In the Catholic and Orthodox churches, all mortal sins are to be confessed in order to obtain full forgiveness, while not all venial (lesser) sins need be expressed.<ref>"We commit a venial sin (one which can be forgiven outside confession) [...]" and "God will forgive the sinner of these minor sins if he confesses them to God in prayer with sincere repentance." - Reaching Catholics For Christ: [http://www.reachingcatholics.org/mortal.html Mortal and Venial Sin]</ref> The sacrament of confession is for baptized believers; if one has not been baptized yet, then sins are forgiven through the sacrament of [[baptism]]instead.
Sacramental Confession is usually made in a confidential manner, and clergymen are duty-bound never to disclose a confession. Numerous legal protections also respect this confidentiality in the very rare instance of an attempt to force disclosure.
