Why do Catholics confess their sins to a priest?

In today's Gospel reading (for Pentecost Sunday in the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church) our Lord gives His Church the Sacrament of Confession. He specifically entrusts the forgiveness and retainment of sins to His Apostles. Today in the Catholic Church the Successors of those Apostles (the Catholic Bishops as well as the priests who these Bishops ordain) mentioned in today's Gospel are still carrying on Jesus' charge. They are still forgiving and retaining sins in this most important sacrament. So when someone asks a Catholic, "Why do you confess your sins to a priest?" The answer is simple, because the Catholic Church as the Bride of Jesus Christ is obedient to His command, as recorded in the Gospel that is in the Bible. Jesus said very specifically to His Apostles, "....whoever sins you forgive are forgiven and whoever sins you retain are retained." Therefore whenever someone says that I just confess my sins directly to Jesus, they are making an important first step of self-examination and contrition for their sins.  However, they are NOT acting in accordance with the Bible nor the Lord Jesus by assuming that a personal meditation is solely what is needed to regain what is lost in their relationship with God through grave sin. They must go to a priest: not because the priest is curious about what terrible things they have been doing or because it necessarily brings a priest any sort of joy or satisfaction to hear such things.  They must go because that is where Christ is waiting for them. When a Catholic walks into a confessional, he is meeting Jesus Himself in the person of that priest or bishop who can trace his ordination all the way back to the original Apostles who were there in the Upper Room with the Lord.  It is the difference between life and death to hear Christ through the priest say the words of absolution and impart the grace of the Sacrament which is vital to be able to fulfill the resolution to go and sin no more. 

Blessed Pope John Paul II went to Confession every week. If such a holy and saintly man as him went humbly to the Lord each week in this sacrament, how often should we consider going?