For prayer and reflection, we offer a complete working translation of the prayers of Pope Francis, delivered on October 1, 2024 – during the penitential liturgy on the eve of the synod – by Cardinals Oswald Gracias, Michael Czerny, Seán Patrick O'Malley, Kevin Joseph Farrell, Cristóbal López Romero, Víctor Manuel Fernández, and Christoph Schönborn.
1. With shame, I ask God the Father for forgiveness for the sin of lack of courage. The courage necessary to strive for peace among people and nations; the courage to recognize the infinite dignity of every human life at every stage – from birth to old age, especially concerning children, the sick, and the poor, regarding the right to work, land, home, family, and community where one can live freely; the courage to appreciate the value of the landscape and culture in every corner of the planet. The effort for peace requires the courage to say yes to meeting, no to confrontation; to say yes to upholding agreements, no to provocations; yes to sincerity, no to ambiguity.
On behalf of all of us believers, I ask forgiveness for all those who come into the world today and for those who will come after us; I ask forgiveness for future generations to whom we will pass on this “loaned” world and who have the right to inhabit it in harmony and peace. How much heavier is our sin when we invoke God’s name to justify war and discrimination. Forgive us, Lord.2. With shame, I ask for forgiveness that we too, believers, have participated in the devastation of the garden of creation, that we have treated the created world according to our whims, that we have defended it so little. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for not acknowledging the right and dignity of every person, that we have – especially indigenous peoples – discriminated against and exploited, thus aiding slave and colonial systems. With shame, I ask for forgiveness when we have participated and still participate in the global spread of indifference towards the tragedies of migrants, for whom sea routes and borders between nations become paths of death instead of paths of hope. The value of a person always surpasses the importance of borders. At this moment, I hear God’s voice asking each of us: “Where is your brother, where is your sister?” Forgive us, Lord.
3. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for every violation of conscience, abuse of power, and sexual abuse in which we, as believers, have participated or directly committed. What shame and pain I feel when I think primarily of the sexual abuse of minors and the vulnerable, of the abuse that robbed these weak and defenseless individuals of their innocence and dishonored the sacred within them. With shame, I ask for forgiveness when we have abused our position – arising from ordination or religious life – and, feeling untouchable, have devilishly exploited the little ones and the poor. Forgive us, Lord.
4. With shame, I ask for forgiveness on behalf of all members of the Church, and especially us men, whenever we have refused to acknowledge and defend the dignity of women, when we condemned them to silence and subordination, and all too often – especially in the context of consecrated life – even exploited them.
With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we have neglected the fragility and wounds of families, and instead have judged and condemned them outright. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we have stripped the younger generation of hope and love, where we have failed to understand the difficulties of growth, the challenging period of identity formation, where we have not been willing to sacrifice for the right of young people to find dignified and fairly paid work, in which they could apply their talent and professionalism.
With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we preferred vengeance over the effort for justice, where we abandoned those who erred to remain isolated in prison, where we resorted to the death penalty. Forgive us, Lord.5. With shame, I ask for forgiveness on behalf of all members of the Church that we have turned our faces away from Christ in the poor and have cared for refined decoration of altars and ourselves, thus taking bread from the hungry. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for our inertia that prevents us from being a poor Church for the poor and to which we submit to the lures of power, flattery of first places, and boastful titles. With shame, I ask for forgiveness when we succumb to the temptation to close ourselves off, well-protected in our sick ecclesial environment, where we measure everything by ourselves, when we refuse to go out to both geographic and existential peripheries. Forgive us, Lord.
6. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we in the Church – especially we pastors, who are meant to strengthen our brothers and sisters in faith – have failed to protect and present the gospel as a living source of eternal novelty, when we “indoctrinated” the gospel and risked reducing it to a pile of dead stone that we would throw at others. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we provided doctrinal justifications for inhumane treatment. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we were not credible witnesses that the truth frees, when we hindered the legitimate inculturation of the truth of Jesus Christ, who always walks the paths of history and life, to be found by those who want to follow him faithfully and joyfully. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all acts and omissions that have obstructed and continue to obstruct the unity of Christian faith and the authentic fraternity of the entire human race. Forgive us, Lord.
7. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all the obstacles we have put in the way of building a truly synodal, “symphonic” Church, a Church aware that it is the holy people of God, walking together and recognizing their common baptismal dignity. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations in which we have not listened to the Holy Spirit, but to ourselves, defending opinions and ideologies that harm the communion in Christ, the communion of all, which is awaited by the Father at the end of time. With shame, I ask for forgiveness for all situations where we have distorted authority into domination, suppressed plurality, have not listened to the people, made it difficult for so many brothers and sisters to participate in the mission of the Church, and forgotten that throughout history we are all called through faith in Christ to become living stones in the one temple of the Holy Spirit. Forgive us, Lord.
