Folia Theologica et Canonica 11. 33/25 (2022)

Ius canonicum

MANDATORY REPORTING LEGISLATION AND THE SEAL OF CONFESSION... 141

status of penitents90 and even consequences of a suspicion for crime by civil authorities) what all will gone a paw the way to the rise of private penance. At the same time we have various witnesses of clemency and mercy such as St. John Chrysostom (408), who introduces a new policy of mercy toward all sinners, even to those who had sinned after the first penance was performed, an innovation for which he was deposed by the Council of Chalcedon.91 Among the papal documents of the time, we have also important witnesses of the same attitude of mercy: e.g., Pope Leo the Great clearly shows in his writings the continuity with the doctrine of the Church regarding the sacrament of penance, as evident in the writings of Cyprian and Augustine, that there is no reconciliation with God outside of the Church, and forgiveness of sins is reserved to the priests so that their judgment is God’s judgment.92 Pope Innocent I is in the same tradition of one penance, but he says that all sinners, no matter who they are, should be reconciled, if they so request, receiving the Viaticum at the hour of their death.93 For some unclear reasons, the Church in Ireland and Anglo-Saxon territory at this time introduced another significant innovation, the repeatability of Penance for some faithful.94

a. Power of binding and loosing is given to the bishops and by extension to priests

An overwhelming number of patristic writings testify that bishops (and priests) have the power to absolve in virtue of their sacred ordination. It is sufficient to mention only a few early writings. The Apostolic Tradition (around 215), attributed to St. Hippolytus of Rome (170-236), for example, clearly links episcopal ordination “to the authority to forgive sins”95 (Apostolic Tradition, 2) and to ordain priests to serve as ministers of the Sacrament of Penance.96

Origen speaks in reference to (Matthew 16:19) about the Church’s power to loose and bind sins through the ministers of the Church: “qui Ecclesiae president et potestatem habent non solum solvendi, sed et ligandi. ”97 When

90 Normal punishment forbade the penitents from carrying on a normal married life with their spouse, to do military service and bear arms etc.

91 St. John the Chrysostom, On the Incomprehensible Nature of God, Homily, 5: 6 (PG XLVIII. 746); Riga, P., Sin and Penance, 98.

92 See the text of Leo I., Ep. 108 (PL LIV. 101), its English translation and explanation in Riga, P., Sin and Penance, 111-112.

93 Innocent I, Ep. 6 (PL XX. 498). See this very important text in Riga, P., Sin and Penance, 99.

94 Sze Busssakrament, in Neues Handbuch theologischer Grundbegriffe, I. 210.

95 See the text in Jurgens, W. A., The Faith of Our Fathers, I. 167 (394a).

96 See Fastiggi, R. L., The Sacrament of Reconciliation, 39; cf. Amann, E., Pénitence in Dictionnaire de Théologie Catholique (DThC), XII. Paris 1933. 722-1138, especially 111.

97 “Therefore, you see that, even now, not only through his apostles has God 'handed over’ sinners 'into the hands of enemies’, but also through those who preside over the Church and have the power not only to loose but also to bind sinners they are handed over for the destruction of the flesh when on account of their transgressions they are separated from the body of Christ”.