Vatican City • For the first time, victims of clerical abuse, war and indifference told their stories in the marbled nave of St. Peter’s Basilica before Pope Francis, prominent prelates and young people representing the next generation of Catholics.
The penitential ceremony occurred during a Tuesday vigil that opened the monthlong Vatican summit on the theme of synodality, described by organizers as “a new way of being church,” focused on welcoming and dialogue.
A South African baritone singer, who introduced himself as Laurence, described the lasting trauma he has suffered from being abused by a priest as a child. He spoke about the effects the sexual abuse crisis, and its cover-up, have had on the credibility of the church.
“This moment in time, in all its sordid detail, is a part of my physical being and consciousness, and is as present today as it was when it took place, the shocking rape and violation of an 11-year-old child by a grown man,” he said. “My story is one of many, and it is in sharing these experiences and facing them without fear, that we shed light on this particular perfidious darkness.”
Laurence was one of three victims who gave their testimony to the participants of the synod, a crowd of prelates and Catholic faithful from around the globe.
A migrant woman from Ivory Coast recounted her story of pain and loss as she tried to make her way to America. She was accompanied by another woman working to save the migrants who attempt the perilous journey across the Mediterranean.
A religious sister from Syria told of the struggles of her war-torn country, where neighbors have turned on neighbors and religion is used as a tool for division.
“In our world, unfortunately wounded by so much violence, the emergency is to work on relationships,” she said. “War often brings out the worst in us, bringing to light selfishness, violence and greed. However, it can also bring out the best in us: the ability to resist, to unite in solidarity, not to give in to hatred.”
Pope Francis penned requests for forgiveness, which were read by the most influential clerics at the Vatican, listing the church’s sins against peace, against the poor, the environment, women, abuse survivors and young people. They also asked forgiveness for using doctrine as a tool of exclusion and not welcoming dialogue.
“How can we be credible in our mission if we don’t acknowledge our mistakes, and we don’t bow to heal the wounds that we have caused with our sins?” the pope asked in his reflection during the ceremony. “And how can we become a synodal church without reconciliation?”
Lay Catholics and prelates will gather at the Vatican this month (Oct. 2-27) for a summit, or synod, on the theme of synodality — intended to usher in a new culture of transparency, accountability and equal participation within the Catholic Church. To start with a clean slate, Francis and Vatican prelates begged forgiveness for the church’s past mistakes.
“At eve of the start of the Synod Assembly, confession is an opportunity to reestablish trust in the church, a trust broken by our mistakes and sins,” the pope said, “and to begin to heal the wounds that don’t stop bleeding, by breaking the chains of evil.”
Francis told young people present that the apology was also addressed to them, asking forgiveness for not being credible witnesses.
“We are only allowed to look down on a person to help them get up,” Francis said in an off-the-cuff remark.
The president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors, U.S. Cardinal Sean O’Malley, asked forgiveness “for all the times we have used the condition of ordained ministry and consecrated life to commit this terrible sin, feeling safe and protected while we were profiting diabolically from the little ones and the poor.”
Cardinal Michael Czerny, who heads the Vatican department for integral human development, asked forgiveness not only for failing to protect the environment but also for not protecting the dignity of Indigenous people and migrants. The cardinal apologized for members of the church who “were accomplices in systems that favored slavery and colonialism.”
The Vatican doctrine czar, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, asked forgiveness for reducing Catholic doctrine “to a pile of dead stones to be thrown at others,” while Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn apologized for the church acting against the principles of synodality by “suffocating plurality, not listening to people, making it difficult for many brothers and sisters to participate in the mission of the church.”
The prefect of the Vatican department charged with overseeing laity, family and life, Cardinal Kevin Farrell, asked forgiveness for all the times “we have not recognized and defended the dignity of women, for when we made them mute and subservient, and not infrequently exploited, especially in the condition of consecrated life.”
Advocates for women’s empowerment and ordination in the church prayerfully watched the ceremony from St. Peter’s Square. While the possibility of ordaining women as deacons was discussed at last October’s synod, Francis had decided earlier this year to task theological commissions to study that and other thornier topics that emerged during the synodal discussions over the past three years.
“We are here on the prophetic margins making sure that the stories of women in the church, their hopes, their dreams, the pain that they have endured is woven into the synodal process,” Kate McElwee, executive director of Women’s Ordination Conference, told Religion News Service during a women-led vigil for the synod on the same day.
She said she hopes that the Vatican summit will usher in more openness in the church and that women’s prayers “will help guide the synod leaders to be able to be brave and courageous and take on these important issues.”
