06/05/2026
Extract from Kacou 177:The dimension of spiritual gifts
138 Brothers and Sisters, let us love public confession. All the early Christians practised public confession just as we practice it here. Many books on the history of the Church speak of public confession.
139 Until the 4th century after Jesus Christ, public confession was the only way of confessing sins that Christians knew. A Christian who does not practise public confession is a liar, just like one who claims to be in the consecration, but who does not approach the pulpit.
140 Before the compilation of the New Testament, the book that the early Christians gave to all those who converted to Christianity was called the โDidacheโ. It was written between the years 50 and 90 after Jesus Christ under the title: "Doctrines of the Twelve Apostles to the Nations".
141 And it is written in the Didache: "Do not abandon any of the Lordโs commandments. Keep everything you have received without adding anything to it or taking anything away from it. Confess your sins before the Church, and you shall not enter into prayer with an evil conscience. This is the way of life."
142 An honest person who loves God cannot go and sit in a church where public confession is not practised. That is how you will recognise honest people and dishonest people in Christian clothing.
143 What we call "sanctions" today were known as "penance" in the early Church. For example, for confessing a lie or a petty theft, the penance might have been three days of fasting. And for adultery, it was temporary excommunication, that is to say, a sanction outside. But on the side of the Catholic Church, the sanctions were in money.
144 And already, the early pastors were unable to keep their congregations in holiness. And so, because of sins, many Christians left the Church so as not to have to repeat the same confessions before the congregation and go from penance to penance.
145 At all times, when the priesthood fails, sin takes hold, and either the assemblies become cold and full of sins, or they lose their members.
