Question: Since it was Jesus who established the sacrament of
Penance, why is it that Protestants do not confess their sins to a
priest?
Answer: Confession to a priest is not a biblical practice; it
is not even a custom of the early church.
Our Lord taught us to confess our sins directly to God the Father. He
told us to pray, "Our Father in heaven...forgive us our sins as we
forgive those who trespass against us." Reading the New Testament
we do not find a single instance of the apostles hearing private
confession; nor do we find the disciples confessing to a priest.
There was no auricular confession to a priest in the early church
either. Augustine gives us a snapshot of the church in the 4th and 5th
century. In his Sermon to Catechumens on the Creed, Augustine writes:
“When ye have been baptized, hold fast a good life in the
commandments of God, that ye may guard your Baptism even unto the end. I
do not tell you that ye will live here without sin; but they are venial,
without which this life is not. For the sake of all sins was Baptism
provided; for the sake of light sins, without which we cannot be, was
prayer provided. What hath the Prayer? "Forgive us our debts, as we
also forgive our debtors." Once for all we have washing in Baptism,
every day we have washing in prayer. Only, do not commit those things
for which ye must needs be separated from Christ's body: which be far
from you! For those whom ye have seen doing penance, have committed
heinous things, either adulteries or some enormous crimes: for these
they do penance. Because if theirs had been light sins, to blot out
these daily prayer would suffice.”
How did Christians deal with sin at that time? They dealt severely
with those who committed grievous sins, casting them out of the church.
A period of "penance" was required before the repentant sinner
was re-admitted. But what about the daily sins that all Christians
commit? Did they confess them to a priest? No, they confessed directly
to God in prayer, asking the Father for forgiveness. Prayer was
considered sufficient for daily cleaning.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church admits that private confession
first came on the scene in the seventh century:
“Over the centuries the concrete form in which the Church has
exercised this power received from the Lord has varied considerably.
During the first centuries the reconciliation of Christians who had
committed particularly grave sins after their Baptism (for example,
idolatry, murder, or adultery) was tied to a very rigorous discipline,
according to which penitents had to do public penance for their sins,
often for years, before receiving reconciliation. To this ‘order of
penitents’ (which concerned only certain grave sins), one was only
rarely admitted and in certain regions only once in a lifetime. During
the seventh century Irish missionaries, inspired by the Eastern monastic
tradition, took to continental Europe the ‘private’ practice of
penance, which does not require public and prolonged completion of
penitential works before reconciliation with the Church. From that time
on, the sacrament has been performed in secret between penitent and
priest. This new practice envisioned the possibility of repetition and
so opened the way to a regular frequenting of this sacrament. It allowed
the forgiveness of grave sins and venial sins to be integrated into one
sacramental celebration. In its main lines this is the form of penance
that the Church has practiced down to our day” (Catechism of the
Catholic Church, paragraph 1447).
So, private confession was introduced a full seven centuries after
Christ and His apostles. Ironically the Roman Church curses us if we
dare assert the plain historical fact that secret confession to a priest
was not observed from the beginning:
“If anyone denies that the sacramental confession was instituted,
and is necessary for salvation, by divine Law; or says that the manner
of confessing secretly to a priest alone, which the Catholic Church has
always observed from the beginning and still observes, is at variance
with the institution and command of Christ and is a human invention,
anathema sit” (Council of Trent, Session 14, Canon 6).
Friend, I urge you to disregard Rome’s vain threats; you cannot
deny the truth. If you want to follow the teaching of the Bible, and the
practice of the early church, stop once and for all going to private
confession to a priest. Pray to God. He knows your heart and He hears
your prayers. He will certainly forgive you if you repent and believe in
His Son, Jesus Christ.