That is even stupider than the original claim that admitting your sin was enough...
In spite of your vast knowledge, you are obviously somewhat ignorant of Catholism, otherwise you wouldn't have translated confess sins into admit sins.
(
Ab = from;
solvere = to free)
Absolution is the remission of
sin, or of the punishment due to
sin, granted by the
Church. (For remission of punishment due to
sin, see CENSURE,
EXCOMMUNICATION,
INDULGENCE.) Absolution proper is that act of the
priest whereby, in the
Sacrament of Penance, he frees man from
sin. It presupposes on the part of the penitent, contrition, confession, and promise at least of satisfaction; on the part of the minister, valid reception of the Order of Priesthood and
jurisdiction, granted by competent authority, over the
person receiving the sacrament. That there is in the
Church power to absolve
sins committed after
baptism the
Council of Trent thus declares: "But the Lord then principally instituted the
Sacrament of Penance, when, being raised from the dead, He breathed upon His disciples saying, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose
sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and whose
sins you shall retain, they are retained.' By which action so signal, and words so clear the consent of all the Fathers has ever understood that the power of forgiving and retaining
sins was communicated to the Apostles, and to their lawful successors for the reconciling of the faithful who have fallen after
baptism" (Sess. XIV, i). Nor is there lacking in divine revelation
proof of such power; the classical texts are those found in
Matthew 16:19;
18:18, and in
John 20:21-23. To Peter are given the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. Sin is the great obstacle to entrance into the kingdom, and over
sin Peter is supreme. To Peter and to all the Apostles is given the power to bind and to loose, and this again implies supreme power both legislative and judicial: power to forgive
sins, power to free from
sin's penalties. This interpretation becomes more clear in studying the rabbinical literature, especially of
Our Lord's time, in which the phrase to bind and to loose was in common use. (Lightfoot, Horæ Hebraicæ Buxtorf, Lexicon Chald.; Knabenbauer, Commentary on Matthew, II, 66; particularly Maas, St. Matthew, 183, 184.) The granting of the power to absolve is put with unmistakable clearness in
St. John's Gospel: "He breathed upon them and said, 'Receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whose
sins ye shall forgive they are forgiven them; and whose
sins ye shall retain, they are retained'" (
20:22-23). It were foolish to assert that the power here granted by
Christ was simply a power to announce the Gospel (Council of Trent, Sess. XIX, Can. iii), and quite as unwise to contend that here is contained no power other than the power to remit
sin in the
Sacrament of Baptism (Ibid., Sess. XIV); for the very context is against such an interpretation, and the words of the text imply a strictly judicial act, while the power to retain
sins becomes simply incomprehensible when applied to
baptism alone, and not to an action involving discretionary judgment. But it is one thing to assert that the power of absolution was granted to the
Church, and another to say that a full realization of the grant was in the consciousness of the
Church from the beginning. Baptism was the first, the great sacrament, the sacrament of initiation into the
kingdom of Christ. Through
baptism was obtained not only plenary pardon for
sin, but also for temporal punishment due to
sin. Man once born anew, the
Christian ideal forbade even the thought of his return to
sin. Of a consequence, early
Christian discipline was loath to grant even once a restoration to grace through the ministry of reconciliation vested in the
Church. This severity was in keeping with
St. Paul's declaration in his Epistle to the Hebrews: "For it is impossible for those who were once illuminated, have tasted also the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, have moreover tasted the good word of
God, and the powers of the world to come and are fallen away, to be renewed again to penance" etc. (vi, 4-6). The persistence of this
Christian ideal is very clear in the "Pastor" of Hermas, where the author contends against a rigorist
school, that at least
one opportunity for penance must be given by the
Church (III Sim., viii, 11). He grants only one such chance, but this is sufficient to establish a
belief in the power of the
Church to forgive
sins committed after
baptism. St. Ignatius in the first days of the second century seemingly asserts the power to forgive
sins when he declares in his letter to the Philadelphians that the
bishop presides over penance. This tradition was continued in the Syrian Church, as is evident from passages found in
Aphraates and
Ephrem, and
St. John Chrysostom voices this same Syrian tradition when he writes "De Sacerdotio" (
Migne P.G., LXVII, 643), that "
Christ has given to his
priests a power he would not grant to the
angels, for he has not said to them, 'Whatsoever ye bind, will be bound,'" etc.; and further down he adds, "The Father hath given all judgment into the hands of his Son, and the Son in turn has granted this power to his
priests."
