Sacrament of Penance
God's forgiveness restores the person to "the brightness of the white robe of baptism, a garment specifically required to participate in the [wedding] feast.
[8] The early Church Fathers understood that the power of forgiving and retaining sins was communicated to the Apostles and to their lawful successors, the bishops and priests, for the reconciling of the faithful who have fallen after baptism.
[9] In the middle of the 2nd century, the idea of one reconciliation/penance after baptism for the serious sins of apostasy, murder, and adultery is suggested in the book of visions, The Shepherd of Hermas.
At Maundy Thursday excluded serious sinners, especially now-repentant excommunicated individuals, were readmitted to the community and communion along with catechumens.
[15] Confusion entered in from deathbed reconciliation with the church, which required no penance as a sign of repentance, and the ritual would begin to grow apart from the reality.
[16] Beginning in the 4th century, with the Roman Empire becoming Christian, bishops became judges, and sin was seen as breaking of the law rather than as fracturing one's relationship with God.
According to Joseph Martos, this was facilitated by a misreading of John 20:23 and Matthew 18:18 by Augustine of Hippo and Pope Leo I, who thought it was the "disciple" and not God who did the forgiving, though only after true repentance.
[17] The acts of councils from the fourth to the sixth century show that no one who belonged to the order of penitents had access to Eucharistic communion until the bishop reconciled him with the community of the church.
Canon 29 of the Council of Epaone (517) in Gaul says that from among penitents only apostates had to leave Sunday assembly together with catechumens before the Eucharistic part commenced.
Penitential books native to the islands provided precisely determined penances for all offences, small and great (an approach reminiscent of early Celtic civil and criminal law).
Woods holds that "over time the penitential books helped suppress homicide, personal violence, theft, and other offenses that damaged the community and made the offender a target for revenge.
"[21] The practice of so-called tariff penance[22] was brought to continental Europe from Ireland, Scotland and England by Hiberno-Scottish and Anglo-Saxon monks.
But at this time Hugh of St. Victor taught on the basis of the "power of the keys" (John 20:23[26] and Matthew 18:18)[27] that absolution applied not to the punishment but to the sins, and this hastened the end to lay confession.
In the 13th century the Dominican philosopher Thomas Aquinas tried to reunite the personal "matter" (contrition, confession, satisfaction) and ecclesial "form" (absolution).
But the Franciscan Duns Scotus gave support to the prevalent opinion at the time that absolution was the only essential element of the sacrament, which readmitted the penitent to the Eucharist.
[28] In the 11th and 12th centuries a new, legalistic theory of penances had crept in, as satisfying the divine justice and paying the penalty for the "temporal punishment due to sin".
[29] As a means of paying this penalty, the practice grew of granting indulgences for various good works, drawing on "the treasury of the Church's merits".
These indulgences later began to be "sold" (i.e., made conditional for the wealthy on some approved alms-giving), leading to Martin Luther's dramatic protest.
[33] From the mid-19th century, historical and biblical studies called to mind that repentance is required before God can forgive sins and the sinner can be readmitted to the Christian community through the sacrament.
"[35] In a post-conciliar document, The Constitution on Penance, Pope Paul VI emphasized "the intimate relationship between external act and internal conversion, prayer, and works of charity.
[37][38] Jus novum (c. 1140-1563) Jus novissimum (c. 1563-1918) Jus codicis (1918-present) Other Sacraments Sacramentals Sacred places Sacred times Supra-diocesan/eparchal structures Particular churches Juridic persons Philosophy, theology, and fundamental theory of Catholic canon law Clerics Office Juridic and physical persons Associations of the faithful Pars dynamica (trial procedure) Canonization Election of the Roman Pontiff Academic degrees Journals and Professional Societies Faculties of canon law Canonists Institute of consecrated life Society of apostolic life Canon law requires confession along with purpose of amendment and absolution from the priest for all grave sins for reconciliation with God and with the Catholic Church, except in danger of death.
[39] The current Rite of Penance was produced in 1973 with two options for reconciliation services, to restore the original meaning of sacraments as community signs.
"[b] In the renewal of the sacrament the more ample form is: God, the Father of mercies, through the death and resurrection of his Son has reconciled the world to himself and sent the Holy Spirit among us for the forgiveness of sins.
[39] By official declaration, one day is a sufficiently "long time" to justify use of the Third Rite, a reconciliation service with absolution, but requiring individual confession after.
[39] Popes have written on the possible benefits of "devotional confession" of venial sins for strengthening of resolutions, divine encouragement, Christian growth, and interior peace.
"Forgiveness of sin procured through sincere and heartfelt repentance is complete and perfect, needing no additional fulfillment," and so "the Orthodox Church most strenuously rejects [...] Latin teaching of penalties and punishments, eternal and temporal remission, the treasury of merits, [...] (and) purgatorial fire.
"[63] A perceived ongoing need for reform and development of the sacrament in the Roman rite is argued in a book with a chapter on "From Confession to Reconciliation; Vatican II to 2015",.
