On the eve of the Synod on Synodality, Pope Francis presided over a penitence ceremony at the Vatican in which Cardinals read a list of petitions for the forgiveness of “sins” against the environment, indigenous peoples, and migrants, as well as abuse, poverty, using doctrine as “stones,” and a lack of synodality, among others.
Francis himself wrote the petitions for forgiveness, according to LifeSite News.
“Gathered in St. Peter’s Basilica Tuesday evening, Pope Francis led the assembled participants of the Synod on Synodality in a mass confession-style event,” Life Site News reported. “The para-liturgy – situated midway down the central nave of the basilica rather than around the altar – comprised a series of testimonies and confessions.”
Abuse victims gave emotional testimonies in which they described not only the abuse they faced but also how the trauma of that abuse changed their relationship with the church.
“When an institution as prominent as the Catholic Church fails to protect its most vulnerable members, it sends a message that justice and accountability are negotiable – when, in reality, they should be fundamental,” said one abuse victim.
In addition to the testimonials, seven Cardinals made public confessions and pleaded for forgiveness in the name of the faithful. The “sins” written by Francis and reported by LifeSite include:
- Sin against peace
- Sin against creation, against indigenous populations, against migrants
- Sin of abuse
- Sin against women, family, youth
- Sin of using doctrine as stones to be hurled
- Sin against poverty
- Sin against synodality/lack of listening, communion, and participation of all (Emphasis added)
As Francis explained during the mass/confessional event, the church cannot become “credible” or “synodal” unless it seeks forgiveness.
“The Church is in its essence of faith and proclamation always relational, and only by healing the sick relationships, we can become a synodal Church,” Francis said. “How could we be credible in the mission if we do not acknowledge our mistakes and stoop to heal the wounds we have caused by our sins?
“We could not invoke God’s name without asking for forgiveness from our brothers and sisters, the Earth and all creatures. And how could we be a synodal Church without reconciliation?”
While some of the “sins” confessed by the Cardinals might not surprise the faithful, the supposed offenses against synodality, the environment, migrants, and the use of Catholic doctrine are offenses created by Francis.
Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Fernández, asked forgiveness for not recognizing the “eternal newness” of the Gospel:
… 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, “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.
I ask forgiveness, feeling shame for when we have not been credible witnesses of the fact that the truth is free, for when we have obstructed the various legitimate inculturations of the truth of Jesus Christ, who always travels the paths of history and life to be found by those who want to follow him with fidelity and joy. I ask forgiveness, feeling shame for the actions and omissions that have prevented and still make difficult the recomposition in unity of the Christian faith, and the authentic fraternity of all mankind.
The concept of the Gospel as eternally new would undoubtedly have shocked the author of Hebrews 13:8, who wrote, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.”
Cardinal Christoph Schönborn confessed the “sin” of lack of synodality. Without specifics, Schönborn begged forgiveness for “defending opinions and ideologies” that lead to the suffocation of “plurality.”
I ask forgiveness, feeling shame for all the times that we have not heard the Holy Spirit, preferring to listen to ourselves, defending opinions and ideologies that hurt the communion in Christ of all, expected at the end of time from the Father. I ask forgiveness, feeling shame for when we have transformed 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, forgetting that we are all called in history, For faith in Christ, to become living stones of the one temple of the Holy Spirit. Forgive us, Lord.
Canada’s Cardinal Michael Czerny, S.J. – a prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development – made a confession seeking forgiveness for what “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.” In addition, Czerny railed against “when we were accomplices in systems that favored slavery and colonialism.”
The bizarre ceremony drew its fair share of criticism. Recently excommunicated Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, a staunch critic of Pope Francis, took to X and called the event a “painful” festival shunning the “real sins” committed by Francis and his followers and “inventing” new, “woke” sins.
Unwilling to ask forgiveness for the real sins against God and neighbor – which the followers of the Bergoglian sect casually commit – the Synod on Synodality invents new ones against the Earth, immigrants, the poor, women, the marginalised. A new pauperist and politically correct decalogue. Here then, “on behalf of the faithful” to whom Bergoglio appends faults that they did not even know existed, we discover the sin of those who have “turned their heads away from the sacrament of the poor (sic), preferring to adorn ourselves and the altar with culpable adornments that take bread away from the hungry”. These words are reminiscent of the objections of Judas – the ‘mercator pessimus’ so much appreciated by Bergoglio – when Mary of Magdala broke the precious jar of aromas to anoint Our Lord’s feet: “Why was not this perfumed oil sold for three hundred denarii and then given to the poor?” (Jn 12:5). And we ourselves, with the Evangelist, could comment today: “This he said, not because he cared for the poor, but because he was a thief, and as he kept the chest, he took what they put in it” (Jn 12:6). The synodal ‘new course’ inaugurated yesterday with the promotional launch at St. Peter’s – a painful kermesse under the banner of green religion and woke ideology – is taking steps towards globalist religion, while the conservatives are preparing to celebrate the Novendiali of Summorum Pontificum amidst swirls of eco-sustainable incense.
Vigano isn’t alone in seeing Francis’ list of new “sins” as an attempt to remake the church. Priest and Canon Lawyer Father Gerald Murray told EWTN that the event was reminiscent of “Soviet show trials.”
As noted by Father Murray, the petition for forgiveness of abuse does not explicitly mention the child abuse scandals that have rocked the church. One argument for that omission could be from a legal liability standpoint – and perhaps that is partially true. Another explanation can be found in the case of Father Marko Rupnik, who is accused of unspeakable acts of sexual abuse of women in a Jesuit-inspired religious community he co-founded in his native Slovenia.
Rupnik was kicked out of the Jesuit order for refusing to address the allegations of spiritual, psychological, and sexual abuse by about 20 women. He has become a focus of tremendous controversy and criticism within and outside the church since his artwork currently adorns multiple churches and basilicas. In addition, Francis, also a Jesuit, is accused of twice letting Rupnik skate by on charges and only reopened his case after extreme pressure.
It’s also unlikely that a pope has the right to invent new sins. While a pope could look at current events and say that a particular new offense or phenomenon could fall under the category of a sin revealed by divine revelation in the 10 Commandments or some other teaching, the wholesale invention of a new sin is another matter entirely.
The Cardinals reading of the “sins” on behalf of “the faithful” also poses problems.
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church p. 1857, “For a sin to be mortal, three conditions must together be met: Mortal sin is sin whose object is grave matter and which is also committed with full knowledge and deliberate consent.”
No one can give “deliberate consent” or commit a sin they are unaware of with “full knowledge.” Therefore, the Cardinals’ petition for forgiveness on behalf of the faithful is invalid.
The Synod is scheduled to continue until October 29.
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