On October 1st, Pope Francis opened the final phase of the Synod of Synodality in Rome in an unusual way, with a penitential service in St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope Francis said, “The Church is always the Church of the poor in spirit and of sinners in search of forgiveness, and not only of the righteous and the saints, but rather, of the righteous and saints who recognize themselves as poor and sinners.”
He said that he himself wrote requests for forgiveness to be read aloud by various cardinals during the ceremony, “because it is necessary to call our sins by name.”
Cardinal Oswald Gracious asked forgiveness for “the sin of lack of courage, the courage necessary to seek peace and recognize the dignity of every person, as well as the failure to respect life in all its phases.”
Cardinal Michael Czerny, asked forgiveness for sins against creation, indigenous peoples, and migrants, calling out the exploitation of the earth and colonialist instincts, and asking forgiveness for participation in “the globalization of indifference.”
Cardinal Sean O’Malley, archbishop emeritus of Boston and president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, asked forgiveness for the sin of abuse, including abuses of conscience, power, and sexual abuse.
He specifically prayed “for all the times we have used the condition of ordained ministry and consecrated life to commit this terrible sin, feeling safe and protected while we were profiting diabolically from the little ones and the poor.”
Cardinal Kevin Farrell asked forgiveness for sins against women, the family, and young people.
Cardinal Cristóbal López Romero asked for forgiveness for the turning of one’s head the other way “in front of the sacrament of the poor, preferring to adorn ourselves and the altar with guilty valuables that steal bread from the hungry.”
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn asked forgiveness “for preferring to listen to ourselves, defending opinions and ideologies that hurt the communion in Christ of all,” and for transforming “authority into power, suffocating plurality, not listening to people, making it difficult for many brothers and sisters to participate in the mission of the Church.”
In addition to the these petitions for forgiveness, three testimonies were also given, by victims of sexual abuse, victims of war, and of the plights of migration.
Pope Francis insisted that it is not possible to invoke God’s name without also asking forgiveness from one’s brothers and sisters, as well as of the earth and all its creatures.
Pope Francis closed his prayer asking forgiveness “for all our sins” and asking God to help the Church “to restore your face that we have disfigured with our infidelity. We ask forgiveness, feeling ashamed, to those who have been hurt by our sins.”
Formally opened by Pope Francis in October 2021, the Synod of Bishops on Synodality is a multi-stage process of consultation that has unfolded at the local, national, continental and universal levels.
After an initial Rome-based gathering last year that marked the first time that laypeople generally were allowed to participate, and that women were given voting rights, the synod will culminate with this month’s Oct. 2-27 Rome gathering, which gathers clergy and laity from around the world.
Thanks to Vatican News for providing these words.
How have YOU been hurt or felt left out by the Church, at large or in your local parish?
GOD BLESSES US WITH NEW GRACE AND MERCY EACH AND EVERY DAY!
Please share these words with others…..especially those who are estranged from the Church.