Binding And Loosing

BINDING AND LOOSING

BASIC R.C. BELIEF The binding and loosing power given to Peter in Mastthew 16:19 and the other apostles in Matthew 18:18 is identical to the jurisdiction exercised by the Pope as the head of the Church and by the priest in the Confessional.

POST VATICAN II The Vatican II document LUMEN GENTIUM cites Matthew 16:19 and 18:18 as the basis for the Pope’s absolute and the bishops’ relative power over the Church.

CHRISTIAN COMMENT The Apsostles could not have understood the above to be the case, and they had been given the promise that the Holy Spirit would make Christ’s words understandable to them. They did not have a Confessional in the early Church (In fact, Confession boxes were not invented until the 16th century.) They proclaimed the Gospel, which was the power of God to the loosing of sains for all who believed and the binding of sins of those who rejected. (Romans 1:16)