At Penitential Vigil, Pope Francis Says: "We are Here As Beggars of God's Mercy"
Cardinals delivered pleas, written by the pontiff, for forgiveness of the Church's sins on the eve of the start of the final phase of its Synod summit.
By Gary Gately
Confession is good for the soul — and for the Catholic Church.
In that spirit, Pope Francis led an extraordinary penitential vigil service at St. Peter’s Basilica Tuesday evening in which seven cardinals read pleas that he wrote for forgiveness of sins of the Church.
The petitions sought forgiveness for sins of abuse, particularly of children; for wielding Church doctrine as a “stone to hurl” at others; for failing to do more to serve as a peacemaker; and for sins against the environment, the dignity of women and synodality. The term has come to be defined broadly by the Church as journeying and growing together as people of God, guided by the Holy Spirit.
“How can we be credible in our mission if we don't recognize our own errors and bow down to heal the wounds that we have caused with our sins?” Francis asked. “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.”
The service culminated a two-day spiritual retreat before today’s opening of Synod on Synodality with a Mass in St. Peter’s Square. Francis launched the Synod, a major Church reform project, three years ago, and it concludes on October 27.
“How can we be credible in our mission if we don't recognize our own errors and bow down to heal the wounds that we have caused with our sins?” — Pope Francis
The vigil also featured several witnesses who spoke to the 368 Synod members — prelates, priests, other religious and lay people — about the devastating toll of some of the litany of sins for which Francis sought atonement.
He bowed his head and pursed his lips, looking dejected, as he listened to the first witness, 54-year-old Laurence Gien, tell of being raped by a Catholic priest in South Africa as an 11-year-old boy.
“Many of the survivors remain unnamed and unheard, their stories silenced. by fear, stigma or threats” Gien said. “The faces of the abused are too often blurred, hidden behind a veil of secrecy that the Church, historically, has been complicit in maintaining.
“My story is one of many,” Gien continued, “and it is in sharing these experiences and in facing them without fear that we are able to shed light on this particular perfidious darkness.”
Cardinal Seán Patrick O'Malley, who resigned as archbishop of Boston at age 80 in August, delivered Francis’ apology for decades of rampant sexual abuse systematically covered up by Church hierarchy.
“How much shame and pain I feel when considering especially the sexual abuse of minors and of [other] vulnerable persons — abuses that have stolen innocence and profaned the sacredness of those who are weak and helpless,” O’Malley said.
“I ask forgiveness, feeling shame, 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. Forgive us, Lord.”
Liturgy attendees also heard from witnesses Sara Vatteroni, who works for the Italian bishops' conference in assisting migrants rescued from the Mediterranean Sea, and Sister Deema Fayyad, a member of the Al-Khalil Monastic Community in Syria.
Vatteroni, accompanied by a migrant, said the Mediterranean is the most dangerous migration route in the world, where an average of six people die a day and many suffer from hunger and extreme violence. Fayyad spoke of the horrors of the civil war in Syria.
“The faces of the abused are too often blurred, hidden behind a veil of secrecy that the Church, historically, has been complicit in maintaining.” — Laurence Gien, who was raped by a Catholic priest in South Africa as an 11-year-old boy
Cardinal Michael Czerny, a perfect for the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development, recited from fellow Jesuit Pope Francis’ appeal: “I ask forgiveness for what we the faithful have done to transform creation from garden to desert, manipulating it at our own pleasure, and how much we did not do to prevent it.”
The statement apologized for the Church’s failure to recognize the “rights and dignities” of all people, including Indigenous peoples, and for having been “accomplices in systems that favored slavery and colonialism.” Czerny also delivered Francis’ prayer for forgiveness for allowing exploitation of the Earth and the transformation of borders from “routes of hope to routes of death” for desperate migrants often seeking to escape hunger, war and other violence, persecution and abject poverty.
Cardinal Kevin J. Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, read Francis’ petition for forgiveness “for all in the Church, but especially us men, feeling shame for all the times we have not recognized and defended the dignity of women, for when we made them mute and subservient and not infrequently, exploited, especially in the condition of consecrated life.”
Cardinal Victor M. Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, expressed Francis’ remorse for “all the times that in the Church, especially us pastors who are entrusted with the task of confirming our brothers and sisters in the faith, have not been able to guard and propose the Gospel as a living source of eternal newness, [instead] ‘indoctrinating it’ and risking reducing it to a pile of dead stones to be thrown at others. I beg forgiveness, feeling shame for all the times we have given doctrinal justification to inhuman treatment.”
The Gospel reading for the penitential liturgy, the Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector, seemed most fitting.
The proud, self-righteous Pharisee stood at the front of the temple thanking God for his abundant virtues — and that he wasn’t like the tax collector, who stood at the back of the temple so filled with genuine remorse that he would not even raise his eyes, but beat his breast and prayed, “O God, be merciful to me, a sinner.”
“Today,” Pope Francis said, “we are all like the publican, the tax collector, our eyes downcast and ashamed of our sins. Like him, we lag behind, clearing the space occupied by conceit, hypocrisy and pride.”
Francis said the faithful should emulate the humility and remorse of the tax collector — and Jesus said he, not the Pharisee, went home justified.
“The prayer of the humble pierces the clouds,” Francis said. ‘‘We are here as beggars of the Father’s mercy.”
Then Francis prayed: “We ask Your forgiveness for all our sins; help us to restore Your Face that we have disfigured by our unfaithfulness. We ask forgiveness, feeling shame, from those who have been wounded by our sins.”
Watch the penitential vigil (with English translators of foreign-language speakers) in this video from Vatican Media.