The second session of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality, set to bring 368 bishops, priests, religious and laypeople to the Vatican, will begin by asking forgiveness for various sins on behalf of all the baptised. Source: CNS.
As Synod members did before last year’s session, they will spend two days on retreat before beginning work; that period of reflection will conclude on October 1 with a penitential liturgy presided over by Pope Francis in St Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican has announced.
The liturgy will include time to listen to the testimonies of three people: one who suffered from the sin of abuse, one from the sin of war and third from the sin of indifference to the plight of migrants, according to a Vatican statement announcing the liturgy.
Afterward, “the confession of a number of sins will take place,” said the statement, released yesterday.
“The aim is not to denounce the sin of others, but to acknowledge oneself as a member of those who, by omission or action, become the cause of suffering and responsible for the evil inflicted on the innocent and defenceless.”
According to the Vatican, the sins confessed will include: sins against peace; sins against creation, sins against Indigenous populations and migrants; the sin of abuse; sins against women, family and youth; the sin of “using doctrine as stones to be hurled”; sins against poverty; and sins against synodality or the lack of listening and communion.
The liturgy is open to all but is specifically geared toward young people, as it “directs the Church’s inner gaze to the faces of new generations,” the Vatican said.
“Indeed, it will be the young people present in the Basilica who will receive the sign that the future of the Church is theirs, and that the request for forgiveness is the first step of a faith-filled and missionary credibility that must be reestablished.”
Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary-general of the Synod, said that in addressing young people, the Church wants “to communicate to them and to the world that the Church is in a dynamic of conversion”.
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Second synod session to open with penitential liturgy (By Justin McLellan, CNS via USCCB)
