It's not just Catholics who have priests. They have them in every denomination. Some are called vicars, bishops, deans; then you have ministers etc. all of whom belong to a hierarchy of clergy that is nowhere to be found in the bible. When we ask forgiveness we don't need to do it through a clergyman as we have direct access to God who is the only one who can forgive us. When we have something that needs prayer - which is often - we don't need a clergyman to bring our problem before God - we can do it ourselves but it is good to know that we have prayer support. When we partake of bread and wine we don't need ordained clergy to minister them to us we can take turns doing the honours. Same with baptism, we don't need any kind of priest as we are able to perform this joyous task ourselves. If the Holy Spirit is being followed in your fellowship of believers then we don't clergy to perform rituals because we ourselves are a royal priesthood.
Your post rings a bell. I have just watched a three-part series on abuse of children in the Catholic Church by priests. Although the focus was on the abuse of children, an underlying theme was the power and authority of the priests. As was said more than once, you don't question what a priest does.
Some of the abused children were abused before reaching their teenage years and when they were abused they said nothing because they thought it was right because the priest was doing the abusing. It also showed how the church covered it up and was, in fact, encouraging the abuse. I beleive now with all my heart that the Catholic Church (sic) is not a church, it is a criminal organization.
I know now why the confessional is sacred and is never revealed. It increases the power of the priest. It has nothing at all to do with confidentiality. Once the person has confessed, the priest has a hold over them. It is obvious the priest knows who the person is by the voice if they attend the church and they can see the person through the lattice.