c. AD 30
Scripture
Jesus and the crowds at Capernaum Matthew 9:6, 8
“…the Son of man has authority on earth to forgive sins … When the crowds saw it, they were afraid, and they glorified God, who had given such authority to men.”
Short answer
The Church agrees that only God forgives sins. She teaches that Christ, who has that authority, gave his apostles the power to forgive and retain sins in his name, and that this ministry continues in bishops and priests. The priest does not stand in place of the one mediator. He acts as a minister, an instrument of the divine power.
Drafted from primary sources. Every quotation is checked against the page it links to.
16 quotations in date order
The Apostolic AgeAD 1 to 100
c. AD 30
Scripture
The risen Jesus to the disciples John 20:21-23
“"As the Father has sent me, even so I send you." And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained."”
c. 56
Scripture
St. Paul 2 Corinthians 5:18-20
“All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation … So we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”
c. 50-62
Scripture
St. James James 5:14-16
“Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to one another”
c. 90-95
Scripture
St. John 1 John 1:9
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just, and will forgive our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
The Early Church100 to 325
c. 100
Church Father
The Didache Didache, ch. 4
“In the church you shall acknowledge your transgressions, and you shall not come near for your prayer with an evil conscience.”
c. 203
Church Father
Tertullian On Repentance, ch. 9
“And thus exomologesis is a discipline for man's prostration and humiliation, enjoining a demeanor calculated to move mercy. With regard also to the very dress and food, it commands (the penitent) to lie in sackcloth and ashes … to groan, to weep and make outcries unto the Lord your God; to bow before the feet of the presbyters, and kneel to God's dear ones; to enjoin on all the brethren to be ambassadors to bear his deprecatory supplication (before God).”
251
Church Father
St. Cyprian of Carthage On the Lapsed, 29
“I entreat you, beloved brethren, that each one should confess his own sin, while he who has sinned is still in this world, while his confession may be received, while the satisfaction and remission made by the priests are pleasing to the Lord.”
The Age of the Councils325 to 800
c. 384-390
Church Father
St. Ambrose of Milan Concerning Repentance, Book 1, ch. 2, 6-7
“They affirm that they are showing great reverence for God, to Whom alone they reserve the power of forgiving sins. But in truth none do Him greater injury than they who choose to prune His commandments and reject the office entrusted to them. … The Church holds fast its obedience on either side, by both retaining and remitting sin”
c. 386-390
Church Father
St. John Chrysostom On the Priesthood, Book 3, 5
“For they who inhabit the earth and make their abode there are entrusted with the administration of things which are in Heaven, and have received an authority which God has not given to angels or archangels. … what priests do here below God ratifies above, and the Master confirms the sentence of his servants. For indeed what is it but all manner of heavenly authority which He has given them when He says, Whose sins ye remit they are remitted, and whose sins ye retain they are retained?”
452
Church Father
Pope St. Leo the Great Letter 108, 2
“For the Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, has transmitted this power to those that are set over the Church that they should both grant a course of penitence to those who confess, and, when they are cleansed by wholesome correction admit them through the door of reconciliation to communion in the sacraments.”
The Middle Ages800 to 1500
1215
Council
Fourth Lateran Council Constitution 21
“All the faithful of either sex, after they have reached the age of discernment, should individually confess all their sins in a faithful manner to their own priest at least once a year … The priest shall be discerning and prudent, so that like a skilled doctor he may pour wine and oil over the wounds of the injured one.”
c. 1273
Doctor of the Church
St. Thomas Aquinas Summa Theologiae III, q. 84, a. 3, Reply to Objection 3
“God alone absolves from sin and forgives sins authoritatively; yet priests do both ministerially, because the words of the priest in this sacrament work as instruments of the Divine power, as in the other sacraments”
Reformation and Trent1500 to 1800
1551
Council
Council of Trent Session 14, On the Sacrament of Penance, ch. 5
“…our Lord Jesus Christ, when about to ascend from earth to heaven, left priests His own vicars, as presidents and judges, unto whom all the mortal crimes, into which the faithful of Christ may have fallen, should be carried, in order that, in accordance with the power of the keys, they may pronounce the sentence of forgiveness or retention of sins.”
The Modern Era1800 to today
1984
Magisterium
Pope St. John Paul II Reconciliatio et Paenitentia, 29
“Now this power to "forgive sins" Jesus confers through the Holy Spirit upon ordinary men, themselves subject to the snare of sin, namely his apostles: "Receive the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven; whose sins you shall retain, they are retained." This is one of the most awe-inspiring innovations of the Gospel!”
1992
Magisterium
Catechism of the Catholic Church CCC 1441-1442
“Only God forgives sins. … Further, by virtue of his divine authority he gives this power to men to exercise in his name. … But he entrusted the exercise of the power of absolution to the apostolic ministry which he charged with the "ministry of reconciliation."”