Pope Francis to Capuchins: awareness of sin key to
mercy
(Vatican Radio) Pope
Francis was the principal celebrant at a Mass offered for the
worldwide Capuchin community on Tuesday morning in St. Peter’s
Basilica.
The Mass was offered in
connection with the presence in Rome and at St. Peter’s of the relics of two great Capuchin saints, who were renowned in
their earthly lives as priest-confessors: St. Pius of Pietralcina (or St. Padre
Pio as he is popularly known) and St. Leopold of Mandic.
“I speak to you as a
brother,” said Pope Francis to the Capuchins present,
“and through you I would like to speak to all confessors, especially in the
Year of Mercy: the confessional is for pardon – and [even] if you cannot give
absolution – let me say hypothetically – please, do not beat up on the
penitent; one who comes [to the confessional], comes seeking comfort, pardon, peace
in his soul; let him find a father who embraces him and says, ‘God loves you,’
and makes the penitent feel that God really does.”
The Holy Father went on to
express a desire to see confessors everywhere with broad minds and open hearts,
who never tire of being vehicles of divine pardon, and who understand the
suffering of penitents because they know themselves to be sinners and the first
to be in need of God’s saving mercy.
“Either you perform the
office of Jesus, who forgives, giving His [whole] life in prayer – so many
hours there [in the confessional], seated as were those two [Sts. Pius and
Leopold] there,” said Pope Francis, “or, you perform the office of the devil
who condemns, who accuses – I do not know – I can tell you nothing else.”
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