When did confession start?

Answer 1

It is a Catholic belief that Confession, also known as the Sacrament of Penance or Reconciliation, is a Sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ himself on the day of His Resurrection. According to the Gospel of St. John 20: 22-23, Jesus breathed on His Apostles and said: "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive a man his sins, they shall be forgiven to him; and if you withhold forgiveness of a man's sins, they are kept."Although its execution has been adjusted through time, Priests have been listening to Confession from that day on.

Answer 2

Catholics believe that the Sacrament of Penance was instituted by Christ Himself when He said:

Amen I say to you, whatsoever you shall bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever you shall loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.[Matthew 18:18]

and further confirmed when He said:

Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained [John 20: 21]

With such clear instructions from Our Lord, it is obvious that the Apostles took confession and offered absolution; this ministry would have passed to priests as soon as the Apostles appointed them.

Pius X in his 1907 decree Lamentabili sane confrims that the Church has observed the Sacrament of Penance from the earliest times.

Answer 3

Roman Catholic AnswerConfession is one of the seven sacraments instituted by Jesus Christ while he was on earth. Jesus clearly gave this power to the disciples when He breathed on them after His resurrection and gave them the power to forgive sins.

from Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942

825. We Protestants believe that God alone can forgive sin.

And that is the Catholic teaching also. But the question concerns the way in which God has chosen to administer that forgiveness. We Catholics add that God can delegate His power if He wishes, just as the supreme authority in the state can delegate a judge to administer justice. Would you deny to God that power?

826. But can you prove that God did delegate that power to men?

Yes, Christ was God, and in St. Jn. XX., 21-23 we read these remarkable words, "As the Father hath sent Me I also send you. When He said this He breathed on them; and He said to them: Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." Now Christ's mission was to destroy sin, and He gave that same mission to His Apostles. Knowing that their merely human power as men was quite insufficient, He gave them a special communication of the Holy Spirit for this special work. To say that Christ did not confer a true power to forgive sins is to rob the whole ceremony and the words of Christ of any real meaning. And it was obviously a power to be exercised, Christians applying to the Apostles for forgiveness.

828. I believe that the Apostles received the power, but it was for them only and has not been handed on in the Church.

Christ commissioned His Church to teach all nations till the end of the world. The Apostles had to hand on all essential powers to their successors. And the conditions of salvation must be the same for us as for the first Christians. If those subject to the Apostles had to obtain forgiveness from their fellow men, there is no reason why we should be exempt. We share the same privileges as the early Christians and must have the same obligations. Till the Reformation all Christians went to confession. In the 4th century we find St. Ambrose defending Confession by saying that if a man can forgive sin by baptizing, he claims nothing greater when he claims the power to forgive sin through the Sacrament of Penance. That Priests possessed such power was Christian doctrine in his time and is still the doctrine of the Catholic Church. The Greek Church, which broke away from the Catholic Church in the ninth century, has retained this Apostolic practice. Protestantism gave up the practice in the 16th century because it was uncomfortable and mortifying. But once admit such a principle, and one could abolish every uncomfortable commandment of God.

　

Protestant ANSWER :

Auricular Confession of sins to priests instituted by Pope Innocent III, (Lateran Council) in 1215AD

Answer 4

Roman Catholic AnswerConfession, or the sacrament of Reconciliation, like all the other sacraments, started with Our Blessed Lord "When you forgive men's sins, they are forgiven, when you hold them bound, they are held bound" (John 20:23).