Vatican City, Oct 1, 2024 / 18:30 pm (CNA).
On the eve of the second session of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis said on Tuesday that the Catholic Church must first acknowledge its sins and ask for forgiveness before it can be credible in carrying out the mission Jesus Christ entrusted to his Church.
“Sin is always a wound in relationships; our relationship with God, our relationships with our brothers and sisters,” the Holy Father said during a penitential liturgy held in St. Peter’s Basilica. More than 500 people were in attendance.
“How could we be credible in mission if we do not recognize and acknowledge our mistakes and bend down to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins?” the pope asked.
During the evening penitential celebration, confessions and testimonies were shared by bishops, religious, and laypeople who have been impacted by sins committed against minors, migrants, victims of war and poverty, the environment, Indigenous people, women, and synodality.
Following each of the 10 confessions and testimonies read aloud during the liturgy was a prayerful petition for forgiveness.
‘Sins against peace’
“I ask forgiveness to God the Father, feeling shame for the lack of courage necessary to seek peace among peoples and nations in recognition of every human life in all its phases,” shared Cardinal Oswald Gracias of Bombay, India.
“To make peace, it takes courage,” Gracias continued. “Say ‘yes’ to the encounter [and] ‘no’ to the clash; ‘yes’ to the respective agreements and ‘no’ to provocations.”
Sister Dima Fayad also shared her testimony of sins against peace she has witnessed in her homeland Syria.
“Indeed war often manages to bring out the worst side of us. It brings selfishness, violence, and greed to light,” she said.
“However, it can also bring out the best in us — the ability to resist, to unite in solidarity, and to not give in to hatred.”
‘Sins of abuse’
Laurence, a South African layman who suffered sexual abuse as a child, said a lack of transparency and accountability by Church authorities had broken the trust of survivors and made his and their journey of healing more difficult.
“For decades, accusations were ignored, covered up or handled internally rather than reported to authorities,” he said.
“This lack of accountability has not only allowed abusers to continue their behavior but has also eroded the trust that so many once placed in this institution.”
Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston, former head of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, asked forgiveness for those who “used the condition of ordained ministry and consecrated life” to commit sins against children.
“How much shame and pain I feel when considering sexual abuse of minors and of vulnerable persons,” he said. “Abuses that have stolen the innocence and profaned the sacredness of those who are weak and helpless.”
‘Sins against migrants’
Sara Vatteroni, who works with La Fondazione Migrantes in Tuscany, Italy, stood beside Solange, a migrant from the Ivory Coast, as she shared her testimony before the pope in St. Peter’s Basilica.
“The Mediterranean is considered the most dangerous migration route in the world because an average of six people lose their lives every day,” she said.
“It all seems like a brutal game of fate of which we are all spectators because all we can do is wait on the shore for those who survive.”
‘Sins against creation, against Indigenous populations’
Cardinal Michael Czerny, prefect of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, asked forgiveness for sins against the environment and Indigenous populations.
“I ask forgiveness and feel shame for what we, too, the faithful have done to transform creation from a garden into a desert,” he stated.
“I ask forgiveness and feel shame for when we have not recognized the right and dignity of every human person, discriminating and exploiting it,” he continued.
“I am thinking in particular of the Indigenous peoples and for when we were accomplices in systems that favored slavery and colonialism.”
‘Sins against women, family, youth’
Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life asked for forgiveness from God on behalf of all people in the Church who failed to recognize or defend the dignity of women who have been exploited and left “mute or subservient.”
Farrell also asked forgiveness on behalf of the Church for the times it has judged and condemned the “frailties and wounds of the family” and “stolen hope and love from younger generations” by not supporting their growth and talents.
‘Sins against poverty’
Cardinal Archbishop Cristóbal López Romero of Rabat, Morocco, expressed shame for when members of the Church have turned away from the poor, particularly clerics who “adorn ourselves at the altar with guilty valuables that steal bread from the hungry.”
“I ask forgiveness, feeling shame for the inertia that keeps us from accepting the call to be a poor Church of the poor,” he said.
‘Sins of using doctrine as stones to be hurled’
“I beg forgiveness, feeling shame for all the times we have given doctrinal justification to inhumane treatment,” confessed Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
According to Fernández, many pastors “who are entrusted with the task of confirming brothers and sisters in the faith have not been able to guard and propose the Gospel as a living source of eternal newness.”
‘Sins against synodality; lack of listening, communion, and participation of all’
In light of the wide diversity found within the Catholic Church, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna, Austria, lamented the obstacles that prevent “the building of a truly syondal and symphonic Church.”
“I ask forgiveness, feeling shame for when we have transformed authority into power, suffocating plurality, not listening to the people, making it difficult for brothers and sisters to participate in the mission of the Church,” he said.
The second and last session of the global discernment phase of the Synod of Synodality will commence on Wednesday morning, Oct. 2, with the celebration of Mass with Pope Francis.
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This “staged repentance” reminds of the beginning of the book ‘Into the Whirlwind’ by Yevgenia Ginzburg. The repressions of the 1930s in the USSR were preceded by the local gatherings of the Communist Party; each gathering had to “unmask” those Party members who did something very bad, like not reporting someone they knew or not being “zealous enough”. Those “unmasked” were required “to give up their weapons = to confess before the Party”. “To confess wholeheartedly” was their best chance to survive and so they would make idiotic public confessions like “I confess before the Party that I did not know that such a person was a sympathizer of social democrats… I confess my lack of attention…”
I understand that to see a similarity may require being Russian. I wrote a psychological analysis of “the public generalized confession” a few days ago here, on CWR. I absolutely stand my definition of it as “a generalized confession as a monument of a covert narcissism”. Yet when I saw this report with the photos, I somehow recalled what I wrote above, “a demand to confess before the Party”. I perceive something sinister in that, like a necessary rite to move forwards.
Taking one step forward and two steps backward has its pitfalls. Using doctrine as stones to be hurled can take Church back to the Stone Age. Synod on Synodality is a fine opportunity to get on the front foot and travel light into the 21st century.
I know people going back 35 years who used that concept merely when doctrine or a point of doctrine, got a mention. They immediately want it out of the picture and want it debased at the same time.
It isn’t the Lodge doing it all the time; but the Lodge is in it too.
Had the current Pontificate been doing the right sort of dialogue, things would not have reached to this.