Letter of April 1st 2000 from Jacques Gaillot

The call for penance of Jean Paul II

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The call for penance of Jean Paul II

For the Jubilee an exceptional penitential liturgy took place in Saint Peter Basilica. The Pope first prayed in front of the Pieta of Michelangelo. The symbol was speaking for itself. Like the Pieta carrying the crucified body, Jean Paul II was carrying the sins of his Church.
The cardinals read six main appeals for forgiveness. They concerned crusades, Inquisition, the Jews, discrimination against women, the poor… Greet this unusual daring of the Roman Catholic Church throwing off the mask of intolerance, unfairness and violence it was wearing in certain period of its history. It was adopting a humble attitude, recognizing its wrongdoing. We would like that other religious denominations do the same!
After confessing these six sins, I was waiting for a seventh one. I was dreaming that a cardinal, disciple of St. Francis of Assisi said: "God, forgive the Church to have confirmed all along the centuries, the domination of mankind on Nature: Nature which is plundered, turned upside down, broken into. We have forgotten that we are part of Nature that we belong to the line of living beings, we behaved like tyrants towards the living world.
The plea for a so waited and so necessary forgiveness has to be followed by acts of reparation to assert a change of direction. Forgiving is not contradictory to Justice, it assumes it. Forgiving is not done to give you a good feeling; it opens to the future. Reconciliation is not built on forgetfulness.
Then asking to be forgiven for non-respecting the women dignity is well but what are we doing today in the Church to get rid of the discrimination towards women?
Asking forgiveness for despising the poor and the fringes of our society it is good, but what matters now is that the Church takes their side without backing the powerful and the wealthy.
It is also good to ask forgiveness for excluding people for centuries but what is the Church doing about the suffering of the divorced people who are re-married and excluded from Holy Communion, the married priests who are excluded from the ministry, the theologians who are banned from teaching?
Jean Paul II made a stirring speech to Christians: " No more attacks against charity in the service of the truth; no more actions against the communion of the Church; no more lack of respect for any nation, no more violence, no more discriminations, exclusions, oppressions, contempt of the poor and the powerless."
Let us hope that the Pope's appeal will go into a practice of liberation in our lives! Because beyond conversion of the hearts and evangelical attitudes, they are still the laws and the traditions that are going on to condemn and exclude. Now is the time in this Jubilee year to show that the Sabbath is made for man.

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