The Church in Penance

Elizabeth Young rsm, 1 October 2024

This evening we joined Pope Francis, the members of the Synod assembly and well over a thousand others in St Peter’s Basilica. It was a Penitential Service, a public event on the eve of the Synod’s opening. When we arrived early in the square, the Vatican guards didn’t seem to know what was happening, but we joined a short queue of mostly religious Sisters that gradually grew longer with all sorts. As a result, we ended up right near the separation barrier between us and the Synod participants, and we could spot several familiar faces as they entered. It must have been a powerful couple of days on their retreat, because they seemed energized and ready to start.

Yet we weren’t gathering to celebrate; rather, to lament and ask forgiveness for the various sins of the world, including all those we have been a part of. The scene was set with a reading in Spanish: Isaiah 58:1-14. We heard the eternal words,

Is such the fast that I choose,
    a day to humble oneself?...
Is not this the fast that I choose:
    to loose the bonds of injustice,
    to undo the thongs of the yoke,
to let the oppressed go free,
    and to break every yoke?

From there, we had three speakers, the first of whom was in English. In my own language we heard a terrible and powerful story of a man who had suffered abuse by a church cleric. His words cried out for compassion and, more than that, reparation and change. We were all called to the responsibility of creating safe church spaces for all, accountability of leadership and, as he strongly emphasised, transparency. At the end, people near us led a round of applause, which perhaps surprised the liturgical planners. A second person spoke (in Italian) about the sins of colonisation and the struggles of migrant communities. A third spoke again (in Italian) about the experience of war in Syria. I will leave other news sources to flesh these out more; for me, I took in what I could with my school Italian.

These testimonies each led into applause, which was then followed by a Latin chant. We then heard the Gospel in English: Luke 18:9-14.

“…But the tax collector stood off at a distance and would not even raise his eyes to heaven but beat his breast and prayed, ‘O God, be merciful to me a sinner.'”

Three more people spoke and requested pardon on behalf of the church. Between these there was more Latin chanting and also a beautiful Congolese choir that all added to the profundity of the ritual. In all, the sins confessed covered:

• Sins against peace
• Sins against creation, against indigenous populations, against migrants
• Sins of abuse
• Sins against women, family, youth
• Sins of using doctrine as stones to be hurled
• Sins against poverty
• Sins against synodality / lack of listening, communion, and participation of all.

I may not have picked up everything, but I heard a message to our young people that past generations have failed them – and that we need to make it better in the future. Pope Francis’s reflection was sincere, regretful and imbued with the challenge for us all to restore what has been lost – to make Jesus’ message of mercy come alive in the world again.

We concluded with the Our Father and sign of peace. At the front, visible only to those with arms outstretched holding phone cameras, Pope Francis gave a copy of the Gospels to a young woman and man, a seminarian and a religious Sister. The gifts were meant to be a sign of hope, of Good News for our next generations. Perhaps the physical ritual aspect of the service could have been made more of, or symbolised in some greater way, but we all took home a message of pain and lived faith.

For the Church to truly be the people of God, the members of the body of Christ, the vine and the branches, the temple of God, we need to listen, build and grow together. A synodal Church is honest and accompanies the last, the least and the lost. We are so grateful for Pope Francis’s leadership and the commitment of the Synod participants to ask forgiveness and address what remains unresolved. For the upcoming month of the Synod,

St Phoebe and St Paul, pray for us.