Synod on synodality: when the Church asks for forgiveness

Synod on synodality: when the Church asks for forgiveness

The second session of the synod on the future of the Church opened this October 2, at the end of two days of spiritual retreat for the 368 members of the session. The day before, the synodal assembly as well as many faithful, 2500 people, met in Saint Peter’s Basilica for a penitential celebration.

Seven cardinals succeeded one another to ask God for forgiveness, confessing the sins of the Church against peace, Creation, indigenous peoples, migrants, women, families, young people, the communion of all, respect for doctrine, as well as the sins of abuse committed.

An ancient gesture

For a representative of the Church to ask for forgiveness on behalf of the people of God is not new. During the jubilee of the year 2000, Saint John Paul II went to the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to leave a letter of repentance from the Church for the violence inflicted on the Jewish people during the ‘History. In 2022, in Canada, Francis asked God for forgiveness for the suffering endured by thousands of indigenous children in Catholic residential schools. “It is not a question of confession in the sacramental sense of the term. The approach is similar to the great gestures of the prophets of the Old Testament, who ask God for forgiveness in the name of their people; however, all baptized, by his baptism, is also a prophet, and can engage in this supplication”, explains Father Alban Massie (sj)*. Thus, Moses appears before God to implore his forgiveness after the Hebrews worshiped the golden calf, sinning through idolatry (Ex 32:30-32).

“Everything is linked” in good and evil

How to ask for forgiveness in the name of the people of God, as if this people unanimously sought this absolution, even though all the faithful have not committed the sins recognized by the Church, or do not feel a feeling of responsibility and contrition in the face of these acts? “On the one hand, it is about imitating what Christ does when, on the cross, he says “Father, forgive them, they do not know what they do”, begging forgiveness for a sin that those responsible do not recognize themselves”, explains Alban Massie. “On the other hand, it is the role of every Christian to think that he can take the sin of the other upon himself, by virtue of a common belonging to the one body that is the Church. Because of this solidarity, the sin of the other concerns me. The Pope in fact recalled during this vigil that “just as no one is saved alone, so the sin of one has effects on others. Everything is connected in both good and evil.” To return again to this passage from the Old Testament, Moses did not himself worship the golden calf, yet God accepts his request for forgiveness for the Hebrew people.

The fruits of such an approach

“How could we be a synodal Church without reconciliation?” asked the sovereign pontiff during this vigil. “By acting in this way, the synodal assembly recognizes, and names, the imperfections of the Church. To ask for forgiveness is to ask that everything that is contrary to the Holy Spirit be removed from oneself. a synod is precisely to listen commonly to the Holy Spirit to let ourselves be guided by him, moreover on subjects where the Church is expected and where it recognizes itself as failing. Peace, the environment. , the dignity of women and children, are missionary places. Not all members of the Church agree on these subjects, Brother Timothée Radcliffe (op) recalled this during the spiritual retreat Ask. forgiveness for all, leaving room for the Holy Spirit, therefore means giving ourselves the means to move forward together within the framework of this synod, it is a considerable mark of confidence in God”, concludes Alban Massie.


*Alban Massie is a Jesuit priest. He teaches fundamental theology at the Loyola Paris Faculties and ecclesiology at the Collège des Bernardins. He directs the New theological journal.

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