The Catholic Church cannot be credible in its mission of proclaiming Christ unless it acknowledges its mistakes and bends down “to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins”, Pope Francis said yesterday. Source: NCR Online.
In an unusual penitential liturgy, the Pope had seven cardinals read requests for forgiveness that he said he wrote himself “because it was necessary to call our main sins by name”.
The sins included abuse, a lack of courage and commitment to peace, lack of respect for every human life, mistreatment of women or failure to acknowledge their talents and contributions, using Church teaching as weapons to hurl at others, lack of concern for the poor and a failure to recognise the dignity and role of every baptised person in the Church.
The penitential liturgy with Francis in St Peter’s Basilica concluded a two-day retreat for the 368 members of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, which is to open with Mass in St Peter’s Square today and run through until October 27.
In what it believes and how it proclaims the faith, Francis said at the service, the Church is “always relational, and only by healing sick relationships can we become a synodal Church”, one in which all members listen to each other and share responsibility for its mission.
Sin damages the essential relationships between an individual and God and among believers, he said. “Just as everything is connected in good, it is also connected in evil.”
The liturgy included the testimonies of three witnesses to crime and sin, including Laurence Gien, who as an 11-year-old boy in South Africa was raped by a priest.
Mr Gien told the Pope and Synod members: “The faces of the abused are too often blurred, hidden behind a veil of secrecy that the Church, historically, has been complicit in maintaining. This anonymity serves to protect the perpetrators rather than the victims, making it harder for survivors to find justice and for communities to heal.”
Francis prayed that God would grant the Church forgiveness.
FULL STORY
Church must recognise, ask pardon for its sins, Pope says before Synod (By Cindy Wooden, CNS via NCR Online)
RELATED COVERAGE
Pope Francis at Vigil: We are here as beggars of God’s mercy (Vatican News)
Pope Francis asks pardon for abuse, treatment of women (Canberra Times)
