Pope Apologizes for Sins of Christians

By Catholic News Service
^{Special to the HERALD}

VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II made an unprecedented apology for the sins of Christians through the ages, the culmination of the church's ``examination of conscience'' for the jubilee year.

The pope's long-awaited ``mea culpa'' March 12 was echoed by local churches in the United States and elsewhere and generally welcomed by non-Catholics around the world.

The pope's idea of a day of atonement, which met some resistance even inside the Vatican, was designed to acknowledge shortcomings in the church's past, in order to give Catholics a sense of reconciliation and make future evangelization more credible.

``We forgive and we ask forgiveness!'' the pope said during a historic Lenten liturgy in St. Peter's Basilica. He and seven top Vatican officials pronounced a ``request for pardon'' for sins against Christian unity, the use of violence in serving the truth, hostility toward Jews and other religions, the marginalization of women, and wrongs -- like abortion -- against society's weakest members.

The pope said the church has had many saints, but some of its members have shown disobedience to God and inconsistency with the faith -- in the past and present.

``For the part that each of us, with his behavior, has had in these evils that have disfigured the face of the church, we humbly ask forgiveness,'' he said.

Pronouncing the apology for Christian intolerance in the past was Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which was created more than 450 years ago under a different name to run the Inquisition.

``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,'' the cardinal said.

Other Vatican officials expressed regret for actions by Christians that have aggravated ecumenical divisions, increased discrimination against minority and ethnic groups, ``humiliated and marginalized'' women, and shown contempt for local cultures and religious traditions.

The pope called for ``genuine brotherhood'' between Christians and Jews, telling Jewish people that ``we are deeply saddened by the behavior of those who in the course of history have caused these children of yours to suffer.''

At the conclusion of the apology liturgy, the pope embraced and kissed the crucifix and, in a final blessing, declared that ``never again'' should such sins be committed. Thousands of people attended the service, packing the basilica and watching on giant-screen TV in the square outside.

Commentators inside and outside the church hailed the event as a historic step, and the pope was described by one Italian newspaper as a ``voice in the wilderness'' for his willingness to publicly ask forgiveness.

Jewish leaders also praised the pope, but some said he should have been more specific about the Holocaust. In Israel, where the pope was to visit later in the month, Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau welcomed the pope's words but said the church needs to apologize for the actions of Pope Pius XII during World War II; many Jews think the wartime pope did not speak out strongly enough against Nazi persecution of Jews.

In New York, the Anti-Defamation League of B'nai B'rith said that in failing to specifically mention the Holocaust, the pope had ``missed a historic opportunity to bring closure'' to Christian responsibility for sins against Jews.

In the United States, local bishops took their cue from the pope and conducted Lenten services with public apologies for church actions against Jews, women, native peoples and other groups:

-- Los Angeles Cardinal Roger M. Mahony, in a Lenten message, asked forgiveness for any of his own actions or those of the archdiocese and its Catholics that have offended or hurt others. He made specific apologies to Jews, Muslims, women, ethnic and cultural minorities, organized labor, victims of clergy sex abuse, divorced and remarried Catholics and women religious. To gay and lesbian Catholics he apologized for ``when the church has appeared to be nonsupportive of their struggles.''

-- Boston Cardinal Bernard F. Law led a prayer service March 12 asking forgiveness for the faults of local Catholics throughout history, specifically regarding slavery, racism, anti-Semitism, sex abuse by priests and the treatment of women.

-- Bishop John S. Cummins of Oakland, Calif., invited survivors of clergy sexual abuse to a March 25 service of apology and reconciliation.

-- Bishop Joseph L. Imesch of Joliet, Ill., presided over an atonement service, apologizing for the sins of church leaders. Those attending were asked to express their own forgiveness by writing down names or situations of sin involving the church; the forms were then ritually burned, symbolizing atonement.

Similar services were held in Norwich, Conn., and Santa Fe, N.M., and other dioceses.

In Australia, bishops asked forgiveness for their failures in dealing with such issues as church unity, care for aborigines and sex abuse. Swiss bishops acknowledged that Catholics did too little to prevent persecution of Jews by Nazis.

Vatican officials emphasized that the church's apology was not a political but a religious act, addressed first of all to God. On March 7, they presented a 19,000-word document titled ``Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past,'' which examined several difficult theological questions and tried to eliminate some misperceptions about the apology movement.

The church's ``mea culpa'' cannot be seen as a form of ``self-flagellation'' performed in public for the benefit of others, said French Cardinal Roger Etchegaray, president of the Vatican's jubilee committee.

Cardinal Ratzinger, head of the International Theological Commission, which prepared the document, said the church was not setting itself up as a tribunal to judge the actions of past Christians. The aim was to ``know ourselves and open ourselves to the purification of memories and to our true renewal,'' he said.

The document said the church was holy and cannot sin, but that its members have sinned through the ages. Acknowledging these faults can foster renewal and reconciliation in the present, it said.

The document, however, rejected any notion of collective guilt by Christians, saying that would be as unfair as blaming all Jews for Christ's death.

``Sin is ... always personal, even though it wounds the entire church,'' it said.

The church officials also said that the pope's unprecedented gesture of confessing past sins could set a precedent -- today's Christians and church leaders can also expect to have their actions closely judged.

``What will the men and women of tomorrow think of us?'' asked Dominican Father Georges Cottier, the pope's personal theologian.

``We are no better than the men and women of the past. It is with modesty and `fear and trembling' that we must judge their acts,'' he said.

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