Forgive us if we lecture on forgiveness

Love, especially Christian love, means always having to say you're sorry, as Pope John Paul II is proving. He has taken part of the Lord's Prayer -- "forgive us our trespasses" -- and made it a key portion of his papacy.

That's the conclusion of an Italian journalist who has studied the Pope's remarks over the course of his nearly 20 years in the Vatican (see article on page 24). The Pope has apologized to scientists, women, indigenous peoples, non-Catholics and others for the sins committed against them by his predecessors in the Faith.

It's not difficult to figure out why John Paul is saying he's sorry: It's his example to the rest of us as we prepare for the year 2000. He has asked us all to cleanse our souls in order to be prepared for the 2,000th jubilee of Christ's birth and the coming of the third millennium. Since he always practices what he preaches, the Pope has been evaluating what the Church has done during those 20 centuries and has been apologizing for when it has wronged others.

As a result, the sins of the Inquisition, the mistreatment of Galileo, anti-Semitism, the forced conversions and enslavements of native peoples, and the chauvinism of the Church have all come under papal scrutiny and earned an apology.

"I ask forgiveness," the Pope has said two dozen times in recent years because "at the end of this second millennium, an examination of conscience is needed: where we stand, where Christ has brought us, and where we have deviated from the Gospel."

With the example of John Paul, the next step is obvious: for us individual Catholics to examine our consciences and ask forgiveness from those we have wronged through such sins as racism, rash judgment, sexism, excessive patriotism and just plain wrongheadedness.

(04-03-97)

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