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

Ius canonicum

MANDATORY REPORTING LEGISLATION AND THE SEAL OF CONFESSION... 143

b. Confession (Exomologesis),

Acceptance of Penance and Excommunication In the Scripture we see Christ Himself absolving sins106 and conferring the authority on the Church to absolve in his stead.107 In the New Testament time confessing and forgiving sins was already practiced.108 While the Holy Scripture (Matthew 16:19, 18:18, 28:19; Luke 24:47; John 20:21-23; James 5:14- 17; 2 Corinthians 2:10, 5:18; etc.) and the oldest patristic writings (Didache, 4:13 and Letter to Barnabas, 19:12) speak of a forgiveness of sins in rather general terms,109 the evidence for the confession (self-accusation) of individual sins made by the sinner (as an integral part of Penance) we can find already in the subsequent writings of St. Irenaeus (Adv. Haer I, 13, 7), Tertullian (Depaenitentia, 9 and 10), St. Cyprian (De Lapsis, Letters)110, and those after them.

Confession and acceptance of penance was the first stage of penitential discipline in the Early Church. In all ages, there was no remission ever without confession.111 The necessity of confession stems from the judicial nature of the sacramental power given by Christ to His Church. (John 20: 21-23) Unless the judge knows the inner condition of the soul, he cannot give a judgment.112

From the beginning, confession was the integral part of the administration of penance, as Caspari writes: “No one will deny that in antiquity, men were exhorted to do penance and to make confession of their sins to the priest.”113 The confession and acceptance of a public penance were either sought spontaneously by the sinner or happened as the result of ecclesiastical correction (icorreptio); and in worst cases included the “excommunication.”114 The excommunication here is not identical with the declared sanction in today’s sense, but these penitents were required to abstain from the Eucharist and to

106 Matt 9: 1-8; Mark 2: 1-12; Luke 5:20; 7:48, etc.

107 Matt 16:18-19; 18:15-20; John 20:19-23, etc.

108 See Matt 3:6; Luke 17:3M; Acts 24:16; Eph 4:31-32; Jas 5:166; 1 John 1:9. Cf. Fisher, A., Safeguarding the Seal of Confession, 133.

108 As an example, the Didache mentions the confession in general terms: “You shall confess your offences, and shall not come forward to your prayer with a bad conscience. This is the way of life”. (Didache, 4: 13 ), 175; cf. Willis, J. R., Teachings of the Church Fathers, 428. The Letter to Barnabas is either specific: “Do not cause quarrels, but bring together and reconcile those who quarrel. Confess your sins. Do not go in prayer with an evil conscience.”: Letter to Barnabas, 19:12; cf. Willis, J. R., Teachings of the Church Fathers, 428.

110 See Ott, L., Fundamentals of the Catholic Dogma, 432.

111 See Galtier, R, Sin and Penance, St. Louis 1932. 171.

112 Confession, sacramental, in Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology, 56.

113 Caspari, C. P., Beichte, in Realenenzyklopedie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche, 434. Galtier, R, Sin and Penance, 171.

114 See Poschmann, B., Penance and Anointing of the Sick, 87-88 and see Augustine: "aliqui ipsi sibi paenitentia locum petierunt; aliqui excommunication a nobis in paenitentia locum redacti sunt" (Serm. 232: 7,8).