UNPRECEDENTED RECONCILIATION
“Should you not have dealt mercifully with your fellow servant, as I dealt with you?” —Matthew 18:33 Twenty years ago, on the first Sunday of Lent, March 12, 2000, Pope St. John Paul II did something shocking. He asked for forgiveness of the sins committed by Catholics throughout the centuries. This event was prepared for by a study of the International Theological Commission. In this study, the Commission stated: “In the entire history of the Church there are no precedents for requests for forgiveness by the Magisterium for past wrongs” (1:1). Pope St. John Paul II continued this unprecedented, radical...