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Vatican Releases Document on Past Faults
VATICAN (CWNews.com) -- The heavily anticipated Vatican document on the past faults of Catholic leaders appeared in print on March 1.

The document-- entitled Memory and Reconciliation: The Church and the Faults of the Past-- was prepared by the International Theological Commission under the editorial direction of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The six-chapter document explains the approach taken by Pope John Paul II when he called for an examination of conscience and a request for pardon on behalf of the Church, as preparation for the celebration of the Jubilee.

The first chapter explains that the Pope's request is an unprecedented one. It draws a careful distinction between the Church as the bride of Christ, "holy and immaculate," and the people who make up that Church, who are sinners in need of pardon. Since the Church herself is holy, the document points out, "the purification of memory" should not be misinterpreted as a suggestion that the Church has erred on questions of faith and morals, or has failed in her task of "proclaiming the revealed truth which has been confided to her."

The document also points out that one cannot hold the Christians of today responsible for the errors of their predecessors in the Church. "Sin is always personal, although it wounds the entire Church," the document states. However, the "accumulation and concentration of personal sins" can produce social problems, and problems within the Church, causing the need for purification. Throughout the Bible, Memory and Reconciliation observes, the People of God have made a confession of sin as a part of their request for God's pardon. In the Old Testament, such confessions and pleas for pardon are addressed solely toward God; in the New Testament, because of the understanding that sin harms one's brothers, Christians have also asked for pardon from their neighbors. The document explains that the Pope's intention, in asking for pardon on behalf of the Church, is in line with "the authentic spirit of the Biblical Jubilee, which calls for the performance of acts intended to reestablish God's original design for creation."

Memory and Reconciliation also draws a distinction between "the holiness of the Church" and "holiness within the Church." It explains the holiness of the Church is founded on "the mission of the Son and the Holy Spirit," and is guaranteed to remain intact "until the end of time." Holiness within the Church, however, is the responsibility of each baptized Christian. Because individual Christians are sinners, the document explains, the harms caused by sin "pose obstacles on the road to salvation for everyone." Thus in a sense the Church is harmed by sin. In judging the past, Memory and Reconciliation warns against two extremes: the effort to justify all of Christian history, and the tendency to make rash judgments on the basis of inadequate evidence and understanding. A proper judgment can be made only when historical research produces a "moral certainty" that certain Christians acted in a way that was contrary to the Gospel, and did so in the name of the Church. Memory and Reconciliation stresses that such a judgment should not be made on the basis of popular misconceptions about certain historical errors, since those conceptions are frequently "false and unacceptable." However there are times when Church leaders acted improperly, the document concedes. And in recognition of those faults, the Christians of today-- who "feel themselves bound to the baptized of yesterday" by bonds of Christian solidarity-- should seek pardon.

The document carefully points out that the subjective responsibility for an evil act dies with the individual sinner; it is not passed down to his children. However, the objective consequences of that act may endure, and become a burden on the conscience. This is the reason for the "honest and fruitful examination of conscience" sought by the Holy Father. The ultimate goal of that process is to allow "reconciliation with God" and the promote unity among men-- especially among baptized Christians.

PUBLICATION OF DOCUMENT ON CHURCH'S PAST FAULTS
Text of International Theological Commission Presented in Paris

PARIS, MAR 1 (ZENIT).- The long anticipated document of the
International Theological Commission, entitled "Memory and
Reconciliation: The Church and Errors of the Past," was published in
Paris today. The document gives guidelines of a theological and pastoral
nature to discern those cases in which the Church asks for forgiveness
for errors committed in the past by her children.

The text will be presented in the Vatican on March 7 by Cardinal Joseph
Ratzinger, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the
Faith, on the eve of the "Day of Forgiveness," which will be held on
March 12. Translations into other languages will be published on the
same day the Vatican presents the document officially.

During the presentation, Dominican Fr. Jean-Louis Brugues, who is a
member of the International Theological Commission, explained that there
are three types of petition for forgiveness: for responsibility (the
traditional one), for solidarity, and for exemplarity. Brugues
distinguished between the forgiveness asked of God and the person
offended by the one committing an error, and the forgiveness requested
from descendents of the offended persons. It is important to make it
very clear that the one asking for forgiveness in solidarity cannot be
burdened with the responsibilities of the past that belong to others.
What it seeks is to demonstrate clearly the person's feeling of
solidarity. Moreover, by vocation the Church is called to be an example.
This is what the third dimension is about, exemplarity.

The document, which was prepared by a team of the International
Theological Commission and approved later by the members of the
Commission, has some 90 pages, divided into 6 chapters.

The document refers to some cases, such as the division of Christians,
where the request for forgiveness has been reciprocal; the recourse to
violence in service of truth; the treatment suffered by Jews; the
Church's responsibilities for the evils in contemporary society.

Following the introduction, the first chapter of the document refers to
the difficulty of the objective. Fr. Jean-Louis Burgues illustrated this
with pressing questions: "Can today's conscience bear the weight of a
fault linked to unique historical phenomena like the Crusades or the
Inquisition? Is it not too easy to judge the protagonists of the past
with today's conscience, as if moral conscience is not integrated over
time? And, moreover, can we deny that we are exercising ethical judgment
by the simple fact that the truth of God and its moral exigencies
continue to be valid forever?"

Because of this, he answered, "the priority problem consists in
clarifying to what degree the petitions for forgiveness for past faults,
especially when they are directed to present human groups, form part of
the biblical and theological horizon of reconciliation with God and with
one's neighbor."

The second chapter evokes passages from the Bible in order to discover
the foundations of forgiveness. In the third, of a theological
character, there is a distinction between the holiness of the Church and
the weakness of its leaders, and he adds: "To the holiness of the Church
there must correspond the holiness in the Church." From here stems the
necessity for purification.

According to Fr. Brugues, the key chapter is the fourth: it addresses
historical and theological responsibility.

The fifth chapter refers to those cases in which the Church has already
asked for forgiveness in the past, and the sixth offers a pastoral and
missionary perspective to the "purification of the memory."

Finally, the conclusions quote John Paul II, and state that the Church
"cannot cross the threshold of the new millennium without encouraging
her children to purify themselves in repentance of errors, infidelities,
incoherence and slowness."

The organizers of the press conference explained that the first
presentation in Paris rather than in Rome is totally accidental. At one
time it was thought the document would be presented in the Vatican Press
Office at the end of January.
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