Knowing the reality behind confessionals...

By studying the book, The Puppet Masters by Colonel John Hughes-Wilson, I therefore discovered another reason why the Catholic Church started the practice of confession a long time ago...

• The Church was so all powerful, so all encompassing of peoples' lives in the
  Middle Ages that its intelligence collection and reporting function is often
  simply overlooked or taken for granted, just as it was in its heyday from
  about AD 700-1500. Of course, the Church reported everything to Rome. That
  was what it was for. That was its job.

So okay, I hope you get the point... The confessional functions as an information collection blah blah blah...

To follow up something, here's another excerpt from the same chapter of where this topic was found:

• ... The sacrament of confession and penance rested on the simple theory that
  sin - except for the most mortal crimes of all - could be purged and cleared by
  confessing all to God's ordained priest. He, drawing on the somewhat dubious
  authority of Matthew's Gospel was endowed with the power of none other than
  Christ himself to forgive sins.

(Therefore... priests were not really meant to.. well, 'you know what.' )

Well, that was one of Rome's strategy in intelligence collection during their time. And that was the real use of confession. Anyway, as time passes by, confession just became an ordinary practice for average Christians. Or should I say... Catholics.