Jesus said to PRAY in private. He wasn’t talking at that time about confessing sins.
Jesus said to the apostles: “Receive the Holy spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them. Whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.”
These words of Jesus are absolute nonsense if people are not going to be confessing their sins to the apostles?. How can the apostles possibly forgive sins or retain sins IF THEY DON’T KNOW WHAT THEY ARE?
It is preposterous to believe that this function of forgiving sins was intended by Jesus to die with the apostles. If it died with the apostles, it would be irrational for St. John to even mention it.
So, you have just directly contradicted the words of Jesus.
It’s always kind of odd that you never get a reply back regarding that, or the various statements regarding the eucharist being the body and blood.