This outline is for study. Source Zenit

The Holy Father said that the teaching-learning aspect of confession is not sufficiently considered, despite its spiritual and pastoral importance.

Confession teaches the priest:  "that the priestly ministry constitutes a unique and privileged observation post, from which, daily, we are enabled to contemplate the splendor of divine mercy."

"Fundamentally to confess means to assist in as many 'professiones fidei' as there are penitents, and to contemplate the action of the merciful God in history, to touch the salvific effects of the cross and resurrection of Christ, at all times and for every man." 

In the confessional, the priest in a sense visits the "abyss of the human heart, also in the dark aspects." And this, he said, also tests the "humanity and the faith of the priest himself."  "On the other hand it nourishes in him the certainty that the last word on the evil of man and of history is God's, it is his mercy, able to make all things new."

From confession (the priest) can learn much, above all "from exemplary penitents by their spiritual life, by the seriousness with which they conduct their examinations of conscience, by the transparency in recognizing their sin and by their docility to the teaching of the Church and the indications of the confessor."

"From the administration of the sacrament of penance we can receive profound lessons of humility and faith". Confession is "a very strong call for each priest to the awareness of his own identity."

"Never, in the strength of our humanity alone, would we be able to hear the confessions of brothers". "If they approach us, it is only because we are priests, configured to Christ, High and Eternal Priest, and made capable of acting in his name and in his person, of rendering really present God who forgives, renews and transforms."

Teaches Penitents

It depends "first of all, on the action of grace and on the objective effects of the sacrament in the soul of the faithful."

"Sacramental reconciliation is one of the moments in which personal liberty and self-awareness are called to express themselves in a particularly evident way" "It is perhaps also because of this that, in an age of relativism and of consequent attenuated awareness of one's being, the sacramental practice is also weakened."

In this context, the examination of conscience has "an important pedagogical value" as it "educates to look with sincerity at one's own existence, to confront it with the truth of the Gospel, and to evaluate it not just with human parameters, but changed by divine revelation"  "The comparison with the Commandments, with the Beatitudes and, above all, with the precept of love, constitutes the first great 'penitential school.'"

Integral confession of sins "educates the penitent in humility, in recognition of his own fragility and, at the same time, in awareness of the need for God's forgiveness and trust that divine grace can transform life."

In an age characterized "by noise, distraction and loneliness the penitent's conversation with the confessor can be one of the few, if not the only occasion to be truly heard and in profundity."

The Pope asked priests to "give appropriate space to the exercise of the ministry of penance in the confessional." "To be received and heard is also a human sign of the acceptance and goodness of God to his children"

"Every confessor, to carry out his ministry well and faithfully, must have the necessary learning and prudence for this purpose."