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Vatican City, 16th March 2007 (CNA) -
Receiving participants in an annual course on the internal forum and
confidentiality within Sacramental Confession, promoted by the Apostolic
Penitentiary, at midday today, Pope Benedict XVI reemphasized the tremendous
importance of the Sacrament of Penance.
According to a press release from the Vatican, Benedict XVI considered the
importance of the Sacrament of Penance and the need for priests to prepare
themselves to administer it with devotion and faithfulness to God, for the
sanctification of Christian people.
"We all," said the Holy Father, "need to draw
from the inexhaustible spring of divine love, which was made totally
manifest to us in the mystery of the Cross, in order to find true peace with
God, with ourselves and with our fellow man. Only from this spiritual spring
is it possible to draw the interior energy indispensable for defeating evil
and sin in the ceaseless struggle that marks our earthly pilgrimage towards
the heavenly homeland."
The Pope highlighted how in the modern world "we see a humanity that wishes
for self sufficiency, where no small number of people almost feel they can
do without God to live well; and yet, how many seem sadly condemned to face
... empty lives, how much violence there still is on the earth, how much
solitude weighs upon the soul of man in the era of communication! In a word,
it seems today that we have lost a 'sense of sin' ... but have increased our
'complex of guilt'."
"May priests, ministers of the Sacrament of Reconciliation, always feel that
their task is to make known the merciful love of God, both through words and
in their approach to penitents. Like the father in the parable of the
prodigal son, welcome penitent sinners, help them to arise from their sin
and encourage them to make amends, never compromising with evil but resuming
the journey towards evangelical perfection."
Priests, said the Holy Father, must be animated by a constant longing for
sanctity. In order to carry out their "important mission," as confessors
they "must remain faithful to the Church's Magisterium in matters of moral
doctrine, aware that the law of good and evil is not determined by
situations, but by God."
The Holy Father concluded by calling upon the Virgin, Mother of Mercy, "to
support the ministry of priest confessors and to help Christian communities
to understand the value and importance of the Sacrament of Penance for the
spiritual growth of all the faithful."
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