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Apologies and Clarifications
As Pope John Paul made an unprecedented admission
of the sins connected with the Church’s past, Vatican officials took pains to explain
exactly what the confession did and did not mean.
By CWR Staff
Since last Christmas Eve, when Pope John Paul II formally inaugurated the Holy Year, dozens of special Jubilee celebrations have been staged in St. Peter’s Square. But no other ceremony has excited as much curiosity, or engendered as much controversy, as the Day of Pardon observance on March 12.
In that unprecedented ritual—which was incorporated into the Mass for the first Sunday of Lent—Pope John Paul and the leaders of the Roman Curia acknowledged the sins of the Catholic past and asked for “forgiveness from the Lord for the sins, past and present, of the sons and daughters of the Church.”
When he first called upon the faithful to prepare for the celebration of the Jubilee, in Tertio Millennio Adveniente, the Pope had laid heavy stress on the importance of repentance, conversion, and reconciliation—both for individual Catholics and for the Church as a body. This, in turn, called for a frank examination of conscience, the Pope wrote. As he put it: “The Church cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without encouraging her children to purify themselves through repentance of past errors and instances of infidelity, inconsistency, and slowness to act.”
As the Holy Year approached, and plans for the Day of Pardon began to take shape, Rome began to buzz with rumors—many of them outlandish—about the Pope’s plans to “apologize” for the failings of the Church. Would the Pontiff repudiate some of his predecessors? Would he acknowledge the justice of criticisms lodged against the Holy See in connection with the Inquisition, or the Holocaust? Pressure groups pounced on the chance to publicize their causes, and called press conferences demanding a papal apology for the Church’s opposition to abortion, ordination of women, and even paganism.
While critics of the Church viewed the Day of Pardon as an opportunity, many loyal Catholics viewed the Pope’s plans with misgivings. Would the world see a public confession as a gesture of surrender to modernity, they asked? Is it proper for today’s Catholics to “confess” the sins of past generations—handing down a judgment on people who can no longer defend themselves? How can the Church, the spotless Bride of Christ, be stained by sin? And how can the Church be guilty of errors, if she is always protected by the guidance of the Holy Spirit? Such questions prompted some heated debates, even within the Roman Curia.
Theological background
In November 1999, when the International Theological Commission (ITC) gathered in Rome for its annual meeting, the theological difficulties of the Day of Pardon were the central focus of discussion. Ordinarily the ITC operates at an unhurried pace, publishing the results of its plenary meetings one year after they occur. But on this occasion Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who supervised the ITC deliberations, accelerated the editorial schedule. He insisted that the Commission’s report should be available in advance of the Day of Pardon, so it could provide the theological background necessary to a proper understanding of the March 12 ceremony.
The ITC document—entitled Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past—made its appearance on March 1, in French, and within a week several translations were available. At a press conference in Rome on March 7, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger briefed reporters on the new document. “The Church of today cannot serve as a tribunal to judge the Church of the past,” he observed. “But we can seek to serve the truth.” He explained that the Church would not deny the faults of past generations, but neither would she “adopt a stance of false humility, and acknowledge errors which have not been demonstrated historically.”
The Christian world can never deny that the sins of individual sinners wound the entire Church, the cardinal observed. Yet despite those individual failings, the Church as a body remains faithful, and Catholicism endures despite the weakness of human leaders. Ratzinger recalled the words of Cardinal Consalvi, when he was informed that Napoleon wanted to destroy the Church. “He will never succeed,” Cardinal Consalvi said; “We have not managed to do it ourselves!”
In six carefully reasoned chapters, Memory and Reconciliation draws a careful distinction between the Church as the bride of Christ, “holy and immaculate,” and the people who make up that Church, who are sinners in need of pardon. Since the Church herself is holy, the document points out, “the purification of memory” should not be misinterpreted as a suggestion that the Church has erred on questions of faith and morals, or has failed in her task of “proclaiming the revealed truth which has been confided to her.”
The document also points out that one cannot hold the Christians of today responsible for the errors of their predecessors in the Church. “Sin is always personal, although it wounds the entire Church,” the document states. However, the “accumulation and concentration of personal sins” can produce social problems, and problems within the Church, causing the need for purification. Throughout the Bible, Memory and Reconciliation observes, the People of God have made a confession of sin as a part of their request for God’s pardon. The document explains that the Pope’s intention, in asking for pardon on behalf of the Church, is in line with “the authentic spirit of the biblical Jubilee, which calls for the performance of acts intended to reestablish God’s original design for creation.”
Memory and Reconciliation also draws a distinction between “the holiness of the Church” and “holiness within the Church.” It explains the holiness of the Church is founded on “the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit,” and is guaranteed to remain intact “until the end of time.” Holiness within the Church, however, is the responsibility of each baptized Christian. Because individual Christians are sinners, the document explains, the harms caused by sin “pose obstacles on the road to salvation for everyone.” Thus in a sense the Church is harmed by sin.
In judging the past, Memory and Reconciliation warns against two extremes: the effort to justify all of Christian history, and the tendency to make rash judgments on the basis of inadequate evidence and understanding. A proper judgment can be made only when historical research produces a “moral certainty” that certain Christians acted in a way that was contrary to the Gospel, and did so in the name of the Church. Memory and Reconciliation stresses that such a judgment should not be made on the basis of popular misconceptions about certain historical errors, since those conceptions are frequently “false and unacceptable.” However there are times when Church leaders acted improperly, the document concedes. And in recognition of those faults, the Christians of today— who “feel themselves bound to the baptized of yesterday” by bonds of Christian solidarity—should seek pardon.
No “self-flagellation”
The theological reflections helped studious Catholics to understand the background for the Day of Pardon. But secular reporters were asking simpler questions. What faults, exactly, would the Pope acknowledge? At the same March 7 press conference, Msgr. Piero Marini, the master of ceremonies for papal liturgies, tried to provide some answers.
Msgr. Marini explained that Pope John Paul II saw the appeal for pardon as an important part of the Jubilee, and more particularly for Lent, a season specially dedicated to conversion. He added that the appeal for pardon would be directed toward God. “It is not a judgment on those who have gone before us,” he said. He elaborated by explaining that the appeal for pardon would not be intended as an indictment of the Christians of previous eras, nor would it ignore the possibility that there were extenuating circumstances for their actions. Rather it would simply be an acknowledgment of the evil that had been done.
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, the French-born prelate who chairs the Vatican’s central Committee for the Jubilee, added that the Day of Pardon would be “one of the great moments of the Jubilee Year.” But he cautioned reporters that the ceremony should not be seen as “some spectacle of self-flagellation,” nor should it be approached with “unhealthy curiosity.”
“Only those who are profoundly in love with the Church are ready to look upon her with a strong, clear gaze,” Cardinal Etchegaray said. Therefore, he continued, “Those who are looking on from the outside may not be able to grasp the proper religious meaning of a ceremony of repentance.”
“If the Church is turning humbly to look at her past,” the cardinal continued, “it is in order to appreciate her present condition better, and to enter into the new millennium with greater determination.” He said that the appeal for pardon should be seen in the light of another major initiative taken by Pope John Paul II: the call for the recognition of new Christian martyrs. “These two efforts by John Paul II are inseparable,” the prelate remarked. “Both of them are calls to holiness—calls made by a Church that bears witness to the Gospel rather than trying to justify herself—a Church of martyrs rather than a Church of mere survivors.”
The Day of Pardon liturgy
By the time the first Sunday of Lent arrived, the Vatican had briefed journalists exhaustively on both the theological background of the appeal for pardon and the details of the Day of Pardon liturgy. On the morning of March 12, the Vatican Information Service released a final explanatory statement, summarizing the background and explaining the ceremony in over 1,700 words. (In fact, the explanatory statement was longer than the entire text of the prayers composed for the special Day of Pardon observance.)
The ceremony began with a statio just inside the entrance to St. Peter’s, underneath Michelangelo’s famous Pieta. The Vatican explained that “the Church, like Mary, wishes to embrace the crucified Savior.” Then the Pope, with the 30 cardinals and officials of the Roman Curia who were participating in the ceremony, entered the basilica in a solemn procession, chanting the Litany of the Saints as they approached the altar.
The dramatic highlight of the Day of Pardon ceremony came at the Prayers of the Faithful, in which leaders of the Roman Curia stepped forward to confess seven specific types of sins. After each petition, the Pope read a prayer asking God’s pardon, and the choir sang, Kyrie eleison. (The full text of these petitions and prayers can be found in the accompanying sidebar.) Then the prelate who had read the petition stepped forward to light a candle at the foot of a large crucifix in front of the altar. The penitential ceremony concluded as Pope John Paul read a final prayer summarizing the Church’s appeal for pardon, then embraced the crucifix.
In his homily for the Day of Pardon, Pope John Paul II implored all Catholics to pardon others, and ask pardon for their own sins. “As we give thanks to God—who, in his merciful love, has given the Church a marvelous harvest of holiness, of missionary zeal, and of total devotion to Christ and to neighbor—we cannot fail to recognize the infidelities to the Gospel into which some of our brothers have fallen, especially during the second millennium,” the Pope said.
John Paul stressed the need to ask God’s pardon for divisions among the Christian faithful, for the use of violence in the service of the truth, and for hostility toward the faithful of different religions. He also called upon Christians to recognize their sins of omission “in the face of atheism, religious indifference, secularism, ethical relativism, violations of the right to life and disinterest toward the poverty of many countries.”
Through the “purification of memory,” the Pontiff said, the Church can renew her dedication to the service of the Gospel. He promised that the faithful would see new strength in the Church—strength that “arises from the acceptance of divine forgiveness.”
The Day of Pardon Prayers
The text of the petitions offered as the Prayers of the
Faithful during the ceremony at St. Peter’s Basilica.
Pope John Paul: Brothers and sisters, let us turn with trust to God our Father, who is merciful and compassionate, slow to anger, great in love and fidelity, and ask him to accept the repentance of his people who humbly confess their sins, and to grant them mercy.
I. Sins in general
Cardinal Bernardin Gantin: Let us pray that our confession and repentance will be inspired by the Holy Spirit, that our sorrow will be conscious and deep, and that, humbly viewing the sins of the past in an authentic “purification of memory,” we will be committed to the path of true conversion.
Pope John Paul: Lord God, your pilgrim church, which you ever sanctify in the blood of your Son, counts among her children in every age members whose holiness shines brightly forth and members whose disobedience to you contradicts the faith we profess and the Holy Gospel. You, who remain ever faithful, even when we are unfaithful, forgive our sins and grant that we may bear true witness to you before all men and women. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
II. Sins committed in the service of truth
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: Let us pray that each one of us, looking to the Lord Jesus, meek and humble of heart, will recognize that even men of the church, in the name of faith and morals, have sometimes used methods not in keeping with the Gospel in the solemn duty of defending the truth.
Pope John Paul: Lord, God of all men and women, in certain periods of history Christians have at times given in to intolerance and have not been faithful to the great commandment of love, sullying in this way the face of the church, your spouse. Have mercy on your sinful children and accept our resolve to seek and promote truth in the gentleness of charity, in the firm knowledge that truth can prevail only in virtue of truth itself. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
III. Sins which have harmed the unity of the Body of Christ
Cardinal Roger Etchegaray: Let us pray that our recognition of the sins which have rent the unity of the body of Christ and wounded fraternal charity will facilitate the way to reconciliation and communion among all Christians.
Pope John Paul: Merciful Father, on the night before his Passion your Son prayed for the unity of those who believe in him: In disobedience to his will, however, believers have opposed one another, becoming divided, and have mutually condemned one another and fought against one another. We urgently implore your forgiveness, and we beseech the gift of a repentant heart, so that all Christians, reconciled with you and with one another will be able, in one body and in one spirit, to experience anew the joy of full communion. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
IV. Sins against the people of Israel
Cardinal Edward Cassidy: Let us pray that, in recalling the sufferings endured by the people of Israel throughout history, Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by not a few of their number against the people of the covenant and the blessings, and in this way will purify their hearts.
Pope John Paul: God of our fathers, you chose Abraham and his descendants to bring your name to the nations: We are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer, and asking your forgiveness, we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood with the people of the covenant. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
V. Confession of sins committed against love, peace, the rights of peoples, and respect for cultures and religions
Archbishop Stephen Fumio Hamao: Let us pray that contemplating Jesus, our Lord and our Peace, Christians will be able to repent of the words and attitudes caused by pride, by hatred, by the desire to dominate others, by enmity toward members of other religions and toward the weakest groups in society such as immigrants and itinerants.
Pope John Paul: Lord of the world, Father of all, through your Son you asked us to love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us and to pray for those who persecute us. Yet Christians have often denied the Gospel; yielding to a mentality of power, they have violated the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and shown contempt for their cultures and religious traditions: Be patient and merciful toward us, and grant us your forgiveness! We ask this through Christ our Lord.
VI. Sins against the dignity of women and the unity of the human race
Cardinal Francis Arinze: Let us pray for all those who have suffered offenses against their human dignity and whose rights have been trampled; let us pray for women, who are all too often humiliated and marginalized, and let us acknowledge the forms of acquiescence in these sins of which Christians too have been guilty.
Pope John Paul: Lord God, our Father, you created the human being, man and woman, in your image and likeness, and you willed the diversity of peoples within the unity of the human family. At times, however, the equality of your sons and daughters has not been acknowledged, and Christians have been guilty of attitudes of rejection and exclusion, consenting to acts of discrimination on the basis of racial and ethnic differences. Forgive us and grant us the grace to heal the wounds still present in your community on account of sin, so that we will all feel ourselves to be your sons and daughters. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
VII. Sins against fundamental human rights
Archbishop Francois Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan: Let us pray for all the men and women of the world, especially for minors who are victims of abuse, for the poor, the alienated, the disadvantaged; let us pray for those who are most defenseless, the unborn killed in their mother’s womb or even exploited for experimental purposes by those who abuse the promise of biotechnology and distort the aims of science.
Pope John Paul: God, our Father, you always hear the cry of the poor. How many times have Christians themselves not recognized you in the hungry, the thirsty and the naked, in the persecuted, the imprisoned and in those incapable of defending themselves, especially in the first stages of life. For all those who have committed acts of injustice by trusting in wealth and power and showing contempt for the “little ones” who are so dear to you, we ask your forgiveness: Have mercy on us and accept our repentance. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
Concluding prayer
Pope John Paul: Most merciful Father, your Son, Jesus Christ, the judge of the living and the dead, in the humility of his first coming redeemed humanity from sin, and in his glorious return he will demand an account of every sin. Grant that our forebears, our brothers and sisters, and we, your servants, who by the grace of the Holy Spirit turn back to you in wholehearted repentance, may experience your mercy and receive the forgiveness of our sins. We ask this through Christ our Lord.
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