Dear Aaron,

Thanks for the question.

Yes and No.

Yes . . . If some other person had offended her, she, as a human person, could, and as a Christian should, forgive the other person for offending her.

She can't absolve other people's sins or remove any sins from their souls. . . Only God, her Son, can do that.

If you know of any Catholics who believe Mary can forgive sins, as in removing sins from other people's soul, you should tell them to go to Confession and talk with a priest about this heresy/blasphemy.

Now some may say the priests are human and they are forgiving sins. This is not objectively true.

While it appears that priests are forgiving sins, it is actually, Jesus, the God-Man, acting through the priest's body, to forgive the sins of any penitent.

The priest is acting In the person of Christ to forgive sins.

I hope this clarifies the issues.

Mike

Hi, Aaron —

Mary strictly speaking can only forgive sins committed against her personally. She cannot forgive sins on behalf of God.

However, she can pray and intercede for us, that God may forgive our sins.

There is a certain qualified sense in which she can be said to forgive people in this action, just as St. Paul refers to himself as saving others (See Romans 11:14, 1 Corinthians 9:22), or how you and I can save people (James 5:20), even though, strictly speaking, only Jesus saves but it is probably wiser not to use such language because it can be misunderstood.

Eric