Why Catholicism?

If that's the case, how do you explain Jesus giving his Apostles the right to bind and loose and forgive sins? "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.” - John 20:23

Even by Paul's standards (not one of the 12), he still held to this and recommended a man be excommunicated and "given up to Satan for the destruction of the flesh". Not an outsider, but a man in the church. And through Christ and his apostolic authority, he gave his own instruction for the whole church to turn against him. "When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh" (1 Cor 5:5).

The Church is hardly some informal belief system of random individuals left to their own freedom of conscience. This is Americanism and liberalism.

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No, they couldn't atone for their sins without the sacrifice made by a priest, who had to go through the veil of the temple to do the sacrifice.

Jesus wouldn't give them authority higher than His own, they may have some authority from Him but He holds the ultimate authority, and we can ask Him for forgiveness because He hears our prayers.

now you're going into extra-biblical exegesis, the authority to hear confessions progresses from Christ and His authority, and we know very well that anyone who rejects His Apostles rejects Him.

And Christ, in His ultimate authority, gave it to His Apostles, and gave them the sole charge to hear and forgive the sins of the people. The only other extra-apostolic forgiveness of sins comes through to us in a valid baptism.

Fast forward 500 years after the Reformation and you get Tupac singing "Only God can judge me."

That's the result of all of this. You guys made the church impotent in people's lives. Good job (not).

Read Matthew 18:15-17 and Matthew 18:19-20. It's about church discipline and the leadership having the right to make the final decision about the church's stance with regards to a person. Matthew 18:18 objectively has nothing to do with confessions.

Meanwhile, 1 John 1:9 says "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."

So the verse to go to for confessions is 1 John 1:9. Also James 5:16 says confess your faults one to another. Not the same as sins. 1 John 1:9 handles confessing sins, it is to be done to the Jesus Christ the Son.

I thought we were talking about confessions and forgiveness of sins. In the OT they had to offer burnt sacrifices by the levitical priest. In the NT we go through Jesus Christ the high priest after the order of Melchisedec.

Again, Matthew 18:18 has nothing to do with confessions (there is no mention of it) or with God forgiving sins. It has to do with whether the church body will forgive something or not. And like it says in Matthew 18:21-22,

Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.

It's church discipline exactly as we've explained about Matthew 18:18.

He also said "them that are without God judgeth" in 1 Corinthians 5:13. Again, dealing with church discipline, not about confession or about God forgiving sins. There is no mention of that. 1 John 1:9 does mention confession however.

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Now you are even denying 1 John 1:9 which I just quoted above. We absolutely have the right to confess our sins to Jesus Christ the Son and he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins.

The Apostles and their successors ARE the Church leadership. And this Church has always maintained the sacrament of confession, even the after the Schism.

and to whom do we confess our sins too? this self-same Apostle was given the mission to hear and forgive sins, you cannot find me anywhere in scripture where this charge was dissolved.

Jesus Christ, true man and true God, who gave the authority to hear and forgive sins to His Apostles and their successors.

You have not proved your point at all.

1 John 1:9 does not address the your interpretation of the sacrament of confession ever being absolved, but rather, all confession must be done through the authority of Jesus Christ.

Hello! Which He gave to His Apostles! He breathed the Holy Spirit upon them, what was that? Just for fun? They even got visited a second time after Christ was assumed into Heaven!