SPLIT: Can lay people "bind and loose" sins?

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Psalm_51

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Saint Augustine wrote:
"And so for the sake of all the saints inseparably united to the body of Christ, to bide them through the storms of this life, Peter, the chief of the apostles, received the keys of the kingdom of heaven with the power to bind and loose sins; and for the sake of those same saints, to plumb the depths of that other, hidden life, John the evangelist reclined on the breast of Christ.
For it is not only Peter but the whole Church that binds and looses from sin; "
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I thought the power/authority to retain or forgive sins and the power/authority to bind and to loose was given to the Apostles and their successors (Bishops, Priests), and that the laity doesn’t have that power. Our priest cites this writing by Augustine to suggest that anyone in the Church (all laity) has the power to bind and to loose but there is a difference between sacramental binding/loosing, forgiving/retaining (the kind given to the Apostles) and non-sacramental binding/loosing, forgiving/retaining (the kind given to all Christians per Augustine’s quote). He says we all have the power to bind and loose the sins of others and to forgive/retain their sins but it is non-sacramental. He explains from several verses in Scripture and from the Our Father that we are called to forgive others but that we can choose to retain the sins of others as well, that we therefore can either bind or loose the sins of others, and that forgiving is the preferred way to go obviously.

Is he correct?
 
Only priests can bind and loosen the bonds of sin. Your priest is grossly wrong and leading people into scandal.
 
Psalm_51 said:
How do you explain the words of St. Augustine which I quoted?
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I don’t. I leave that to the scholars who have studied the works of the saints and who are orthodox. I know that the power to bind and losen sin was given to priess, NOT to the laity. I can say the words of absolution to some who confesses to me, but all it will do is put me in a state of mortal sin for simulating a sacrament.
 
This quote is taken out of context and so it’s impossible to comment on it. I have found that one often needs pages of Augustine to delve his true intent.

What was your priest trying to say? Was it something like we can control our own addictions (through the grace of God)?
Or was it more like, the authority of the Church is negligable since we all have the same authority?
 
St. Augustine talked about the whole Church, lay people are individual members of the Church. However, lay people might participate in binding and loosing through the concept of sensus fidelium.
 
I would very much like to hear from FrDavid96 (member of this forum) on this issue if anyone knows how to contact him.
 
Cristiano said:
St. Augustine talked about the whole Church, lay people are individual members of the Church. However, lay people might participate in binding and loosing through the concept of sensus fidelium.
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How so?
 
I would understand “the whole Church” to mean the Bishops in union with the Pope. That’s what makes a valid Church Council, and in Church Councils the Church binds and looses.
 
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