Papal apology makes history.

1. Pontiff asks God's forgiveness for past wrongs committed against Jews, women, minorities

In an unprecedented moment in the history of the Church, John Paul II asked God's forgiveness for the sins of Catholics through the ages. The apology, which included wrongs done to Jews, women and minorities, was described as a personal landmark for the increasingly fragile pontiff.

At a special Mass of Pardon on Sunday, March 12, the Holy Father, wearing Lenten purple vestments, asked the Lord's forgiveness for the sins of injustice committed by Christians during the Church's 2000-year-history. "We are asking pardon for the divisions among Christians, for the use of violence that some have committed in the service of truth, and for attitudes of mistrust and hostility assumed towards followers of other religions," he said. "At the same time that we confess our sins, we forgive those committed by others against us." Behind a crucifix, the Holy Father was wheeled up the central aisle of St. Peter's on a mobile platform, to spare him the difficulty of going on foot. He was flanked by seven Curial officials, each of them reciting one of the seven kinds of sin for which he asked forgiveness. After each confession, the Pope replied by undertaking that such errors would not be repeated, concluding with "Mai piu"--"Never again."

Cardinal Gantin opened with a prayer concerning sin in general, and the need for conversion. Cardinal Ratzinger confessed the wrongs committed in the service of the faith--intolerance, violence against dissidents, abuses during the Crusades, and the methods of the Inquisition. Cardinal Etchegaray confessed the sin of "compromising the unity of Christ," including excommunications, persecution, and causing divisions in Christianity.

Cardinal Cassidy dealt with the wrongs committed to "the people of the first Covenant, Israel."

"Let us pray," he said, "that, in recalling the sufferings endured by the people of Israel throughout history, Christians will acknowledge the sins committed by not a few of their number against the people of the Covenant." In reply, the Pope said, "We are deeply saddened by the behaviour of those who in the course of history have caused your people to suffer, and asking your forgiveness we wish to commit ourselves to genuine brotherhood."

Msgr. Stephen Humao confessed to wrongs committed against immigrants, gypsies and the weak; Cardinal Arinze to sins that have injured the dignity of women and the unity of mankind; and Msgr. Francois Van Thuan, for years a prisoner in Vietnam, to sins "in the field of people's fundamental human rights," including abortion and foetal experimentation.

The Millennium is a Jubilee Year, the year when in ancient Israel reconciliation occurred, slaves were freed, and wrongs were righted. The papal apology was very appropriate therefore. Its theological basis was explained in a Vatican document entitled Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past. Father Avery Dulles, SJ, points out that the Pope's declarations of repentance are directed towards God, not at the descendants of victims of injury. The Pope is not dealing with doctrinal errors, but failures to act in accordance with the Church's standards of belief and conduct. Moreover, he does not specify particular wrongs or name names; he does not place blame on particular priests or other individuals.

Israel's chief rabbi, Israel Meir Lau, considered the service as reflecting a warped view of history, and was frustrated by the lack of mention of the Holocaust. Other Jews had similar complaints. But Rabbi Lau praised the bold step of apologizing at all: "For the first time a Pope comes and says, 'I confess.'"

One group which considered itself discriminated against was the homosexuals. "Today, the Church has begged forgiveness from heretics, dissidents, non-believers, Jews, women--but not homosexuals." It is safe to say that an apology to them will be a very long time in coming.

Gregory Baum, the ex-Catholic priest, described nevertheless in the Toronto Star as "one of Canada's leading Catholic thinkers," wondered why there was no mention of women's ordination, sexual abuse by priests, or the mistreatment of homosexuals--showing that he himself is still lost in the 20th century. But he, like many others, called the apology an "extraordinary event."

Archbishop Prendergast of Halifax said that this apology "flows out of a deeply religious impulse" and testifies to the Holy Father's "mystical sense of the year 2000."

2. Homily of Holy Father asking pardon

Text

1. "We beseech you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God" (2 Cor 5:20-21).

These are words of St. Paul that the Church reads every year on Ash Wednesday, at the beginning of Lent. During the Lenten season, the Church unites itself in a particular way to Christ, who, moved from within by the Holy Spirit, took up his Messianic mission by going into the desert. There he fasted for forty days and forty nights (Cf.Mk 1:12-13).

At the end of that fasting came the temptation by Satan, as noted in summary in today's Liturgy by St. Mark the Evangelist (Cf.1:13). Matthew and Luke, on the other hand, consider this combat of Christ in the desert in greater detail and tell of his definitive victory over the tempter: "Be gone, Satan! for it is written, 'You shall worship the Lord your God and him only shall you serve'" (Mt 4:10).

The one who speaks this way is he "who knew no sin (2 Cor 5:21), Jesus, "the Holy One of God" (Mk 1:24).

2. "For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin" (2 Cor 5:21). A moment ago, in the second reading, we heard this surprising affirmation of the Apostle. What do these words mean? They seem to be a paradox, and in fact they are. How could God, who is holiness himself, make his only-begotten Son become "sin," when he sent him into the world? But this is what we read in this passage of the Second Letter of St. Paul to the Corinthians. We are faced with a mystery, at first glance disconcerting, but written in clear letters in divine Revelation.

Already in the Old Testament, the Book of Isaiah spoke of this with inspired foresight in the fourth canticle of the Servant of Yahweh: "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Is 53:6).

Christ, the Holy One, despite being absolutely free from sin, consented to take our sins upon Himself. He consented to redeem us; he accepted to make himself the bearer of our sins to complete the mission received from the Father, who, as John the Evangelist writes, "so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should...have eternal life" (Jn 3:16).

3. Before Christ, who for love, clothed himself in our iniquities, we are all invited to a profound examination of conscience. One of the characteristic elements of the Great Jubilee is what I called a "purification of memory" (Bull Incarnationis Mysterium, 11). As successor of Peter, I asked that "in this year of mercy, the Church, strengthened by the holiness that it receives from the Lord, would kneel before God and ask pardon for the past and present sins of its children". Today, the first Sunday of Lent, seemed to me the ideal occasion for the Church, spiritually gathered around the Successor of Peter, to implore divine forgiveness for the faults of all the faithful. Let us forgive and ask forgiveness!

This appeal has brought about a deep and meaningful reflection in the community of the Church, which in the past days published a document of the International Theological Commission, entitled Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Sins of the Past. I thank those who contributed to the writing of this text. It is very useful for a correct understanding and for bringing about an authentic request for forgiveness, founded on the objective responsibility that belongs to Christians, as members of the Mystical Body, and which will urge the faithful today to confess the sins of the Christians of yesterday along with their own, in the light of an accurate theological and historical study. In fact, "by the link that unites one to the other in the Mystical Body, we all carry the weight of the errors and sins of those who have preceded us, even if we aren't personally responsible and without replacing the judgment of God, who alone knows our hearts" (Incarnationis Mysterium, 11). Confessing the deviations of the past serves to waken our consciences to the commitments of the present, opening the way of conversion to each of us.

4. Let us forgive and ask forgiveness! While we praise God who in his merciful love has raised up in the Church a marvelous harvest of holiness, of missionary spirit, of total dedication to Christ and to our neighbours, we cannot fail to recognise the infidelity to the Gospel that certain of our brothers and sisters have fallen into, especially during the second millennium. We ask pardon for the divisions that have come between Christians, for the use of violence by some of them in service to the truth, and for the attitudes of indifference and hostile assumptions in meetings with followers of other religions.

We confess, more importantly, our responsibility as Christians for the evils of today. Faced with atheism, religious indifference, secularism, ethical relativism, violations of the right to life, disinterest toward the poor of many countries, we cannot fail to ask ourselves what our responsibility is.

We humbly ask pardon for the part each of us has played in these evils by our actions, contributing to disfigure the face of the Church.

At the same time as we confess our faults, we forgive the faults committed by others in our meetings. In the course of history, innumerably many times Christians have suffered vexation, domination, and persecution for reason of their faith. As the victims of these abuses forgave, so must we forgive. The Church of today and for all time feels the duty to purify the memory of those sad events from every sentiment of rancor or anger. So the Jubilee becomes a special occasion for everyone to make a profound conversion to the Gospel. From the acceptance of divine pardon comes the duty to pardon and make up with our brothers and sisters.

5. But what then does the term "reconciliation" mean to us? To understand its exact meaning and value, we must first take note of the possibility of divisions, of separations. Yes, human beings are the only creatures on earth that can establish a relationship of communion with their creator, but they are also the only ones who can separate themselves as well. They have often in fact distanced themselves from God.

Fortunately, many people, like the Prodigal Son from the Gospel of Luke (Cf. Lk 15:13), after having left the house of their father and having wasted the inheritance they received and hitting rock bottom, come to realize how much they have lost (Cf. Lk 15:13-17). They take up the way of return: "I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, 'Father, I have sinned...' " (Lk 15:18).

God, represented well by the father of the parable, accepts every prodigal son who returns to him. He accepts them through Christ, in whom the sinner may again become "righteous" according to God's righteousness. He accepts them because for us he made his own eternal Son to be sin. Yes, only by means of Christ can we become the righteousness of God (Cf. 2 Cor 5:21).

6. "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son." Here is the summary of the mystery of the world's redemption! We must take note of the value of the great gift that the Father has given us in Jesus. We must have Christ before the eyes of our soul, the Christ of Gethsemani, the scourged Christ, crowned with thorns, bearing the cross, and finally crucified. Christ took the weight of the sins of all men and women on himself, the weight of our sins, so that we could be reconciled with God in virtue of his salvific sacrifice.

Saul of Tarsus, who became St. Paul, presents himself before us today as a witness: he experienced the power of the Cross in a unique way on the road to Damascus. The Risen One manifested himself to him in all his radiant power: "Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?... Who are you, Lord?... I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting!" (Acts 9:4-5). Paul, who so strongly experienced the power of Christ's Cross, today directs to us an ardent plea: "We entreat you not to accept the grace of God in vain." This grace, insists St. Paul, is offered to us by God himself, who says to us today, "At the acceptable time I have listened to you, and helped you on the day of salvation" (2 Cor 6:1-2).

Mary, Mother of forgiveness, help us to accept the grace of forgiveness that the Jubilee generously offers. Grant that the Lent of this extraordinary Holy Year may be for all the faithful, and for everyone who seeks God, the acceptable time, the time of reconciliation, the time of salvation!

3. "What more do we Jews want?"

Jewish philosopher Bernard-Henry Levy comments on the penitential gesture

Rome--A Jewish philosopher expressed surprise last Friday at the cold response of the international Jewish community to John Paul II's penitential gesture. BernardHenry Levy wrote an article for La Repubblica, Italy's second largest newspaper, asking what more the Jews want.

Levy is bothered by the harsh statements issued against the "Polish," "reactionary," and "deaf' Pope, who in fact decried the Holocaust in Auschwitz in 1979, in Mauthausen in 1988, in Majdanak in 1991, and during a visit to the Synagogue in Rome on April 13, 1983. On that occasion, the Holy Father spoke of "unheard of crimes against God and man."

"What more can be said? Is there a more profound way for a Pope to weep over a metaphysical tragedy?" the French philosopher asked.

Levy, born in Algeria in the heart of a wealthy industrial Jewish family, further addressed the problem of Pius XII's alleged "silence," the last war horse of international Zionism. He asks: "What do we know about these silences? In light of recent history, are we sure that Pius XII was pro-German, indeed a proNazi whose portrait was drawn up in 1963 by Protestant writer Rolf Hochhuth in The Deputy?

"The only sure thing is that John Paul II, the present Pope, even before the recent solemn penitential act, has not ceased to ask forgiveness for 'our passivity in face of the persecutions of the Jews and the Holocaust' (on December 7, 1991, at the closing of the European Synod), for the 'insufficiency' of the Church's opposition to the Nazis (June, 1996), for the criminal thoughtlessness of guilty Christians 'for not having been sufficiently strong to raise their voice' against 'the horror of the disappearance of their Jewish neighbours.'"

"John XXIII did not go so far. And the Holocaust was not even mentioned during Vatican II," the philosopher pointed out.

The long article ends by saying that it is opportune to wait for John Paul II's trip to the Holy Land. "For the time being," wrote the philosopher, "we must hold to the facts, namely the texts. And to the magnificent picture of this very elderly man, exhausted and virtually in tears, who, at the foot of a crucified Christ in a gesture of humility without equal in the last five centuries (since Adrian VI's confession in 1523), suddenly becomes the contemporary of the whole of his institution's history: the poor, the persecuted everywhere and at all times, the victims of the Inquisition, abused women, gypsies and, more than ever, those elder brothers, to whom Christianity is linked by a pact that is so special as was-alas--the torture they suffered."

Finally Bernard-Henry Levy wrote, " 'Has anyone ever asked us for forgiveness?' Vladimir Jankelevitch asks in one of his classic texts. Well yes, John Paul II".

4. "He is the Pontiff of renewed dialogue"

Roman Rabbi Elio Toaff comments on the papal pilgrimage to Holy Land

Vatican City--"Very satisfied and pleased," were the feelings inspired in Chief Rabbi Elio Toaff of Rome's Synagogue, by John Paul II's pilgrimage to the Holy Land on March 20. The Rabbi's comments appeared in an article in the Italian newspaper Avvenire. The Rabbi said it is a "further and significant step in relations between the Church and the Jewish people."

"The condemnation of any form of anti-Semitism, the sincere repentance for the faults of the past regarding the 'elder brothers,' coupled with other steps of great moral and spiritual value, like the visit to the principal temple in Rome, the first of a Pope to a synagogue, the recognition of the State of Israel, and now the visit to the Holy Land in the Jubilee Year, indelibly mark the new relation between the Church and Judaism, which this great Pontiff has emphasized, far from any expression of hatred or aversion, above all through reciprocal respect and the awareness of our great common spiritual heritage."

The Rabbi said, however, that much remains to be done, both on the part of Christians as well as Jews of good will, and the Jewish community still hopes for much from the Church as, for example, "a condemnation, free from any ambiguity, for the culpable silences in the face of the Holocaust, acknowledgement of the special religious and political value that Jews give to Jerusalem, capital of its first national State, and seat of the Shrine to which Jews all over the world have always remained spiritually united, even after its destruction."

But Rabbi Toaff also recognized all that has been accomplished, thanks to this Pope, "the Pontiff of renewed dialogue between the Church and Judaism." Because of this, he added, "I accompany him with emotion and hope on his pilgrimage to the Holy Land, pronouncing over him the biblical blessing: 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of God'".