Fr. Richard Simon received a question that sounds straight outta Catholic Trivia Night:

“Are there sins that only the Pope can forgive?”

👀 Yep.

But don’t panic; odds are, you’re not on that list.

🎙️ A listener, Dylan (shout-out, Dylan 👋), called in all worried. He remembered being a kid, learning something incorrect about the faith on YouTube, totally believed it, and even told his grandpa about it. Now he’s like: “Wait… was that heresy?!?” Do I need to confess this to the Pope?

Father Simon basically told Dylan not to worry.

Here’s what you should know:

💡 What is heresy, anyway?

– It’s not just being wrong about the faith. (Whew!)

– It’s when you obstinately (aka stubbornly) and publicly deny a core teaching of the Church… even after being corrected.

– A misunderstanding? A brainwashed YouTube moment? Not heresy. Just… the internet doing internet things.

But then Fr. Simon also shared this:

🚨 Yes, there are sins reserved to the Pope.

Like what? Well, for example:

– If a priest breaks the seal of confession, meaning he tells someone what you confessed; that’s super serious, and only the Pope can forgive that.

So yes… some sins are so intense that they get escalated to the papal office in Rome. But again… these are rare and extreme cases.

🙏 Moral of the story: God’s mercy is so powerful. And if you’re worried about something you did? Just go to confession. You won’t regret it.

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