01-05-2013 - Traces, n. 5

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Return to the confessional
“Never tire of asking”

by Giorgio Paolucci

“The Lord never tires of forgiving. We are the ones who tire of asking for forgiveness.” The words of Pope Francis during his first Angelus on March 17th left their mark on the hearts of many. “In the confessional, people often begin with these words, saying they gave them the resolve to return to the sacrament of reconciliation, maybe after years away from it.” This experience has happened many times in these weeks for Msgr. Gianfranco Meana, who has served as the High Penitentiary of the Milan Cathedral for five years, responsible for the 39 priests and religious who guarantee access to Confession every day from 7 am to 6:30 pm.
Some have said a “Bergoglio effect” has multiplied participation in this sacrament by many who have difficulty with it, because of the Pope’s reiteration of the word “mercy” in his talks, and because of the simple gestures of hospitality that accompany them. Meana opens his arms: “Mine is an entirely empirical point of view. In these weeks, I have noted an increase but, for Pete’s sake, we don’t do statistics.”

Like Zacchaeus. However, there are those who have tried to compile statistics, such as Massimo Introvigne, Director of CESNUR (the Center for Studies of New Religions), which conducted a survey of 200 priests and found that 53% confirm an increase in the number of people who return to the Church or go to Confession, and who explicitly quote Pope Francis’ exhortation as the reason for their return to religious practice. For 64%, the increase concerns Confession in particular.
“The words and gestures of the Pope communicate the certainty that God is always waiting for us, ready to come to our house as Jesus did with Zacchaeus. He does not measure the degree of coherence, does not conduct precautionary inquiries into our conduct; He wants the good in each of us,” says Msgr. Meana, strolling along the naves of the Milanese cathedral. “In these confessionals, we encounter hundreds of people every day, many of them young people, because of the closeness to the university, as well as people of every class and condition, foreigners helped by the presence of priests who speak various languages (even Japanese and Aramaic), tourists who enter to see the Cathedral and sense the call of the heart. It is a very educative experience, especially for us priests: we experience personally what it means to say that the Lord always enables us to start fresh, and that we are the instruments for His mercy to become an experienced presence.”
That Confession can be the dawn of a new life is also witnessed by the biography of Jorge Bergoglio. On September 21, 1953, when he was 17 years old, he went to his parish church of San José de Flores in Buenos Aires for Confession. This is how Pope Francis recounts the episode that was the origin of his vocation: “Something strange happened to me during that Confession. I don’t know what, exactly, but it changed my life; I would say that I let myself be caught with my guard down. It was the surprise, or the wonder of an encounter; I realized that they were waiting for me. This is the religious experience: the wonder of encountering someone who is waiting for you. From that moment on, God became for me the One who precedes you. You are looking for Him and He is already looking for you.” When he was elected Bishop, in memory of that fact, he chose as his motto and program of life (confirmed recently in his papal motto) Miserando atque eligendo, an expression of Saint Bede the Venerable who, commenting on the episode of the calling of Saint Matthew, wrote, “Jesus saw the tax collector and having mercy chose him (Miserando atque eligendo) as an Apostle, saying to him: ‘Follow Me.’”

Kneeling in the dust. Fr. Santino Regazzoni spends eight hours a week in the confessional of the Church of San Francesco and Santa Maria degli Angeli in Milan, where, for the past 30 years, he has shared his days with the Capuchin friars. “Francis, the Pope of mercy? Certainly, mercy is a leitmotif of his talks, but first of all it is the leitmotif of the founder: Jesus is the icon of mercy, and mark my words, mercy is not an ink remover for our sins, or a slap on the back of the person who has erred. Some people mistake the confessor for a psychologist, and blow off steam about things that aren’t going well, or ask for advice on choices they have to make. Certainly, we can try to help out, but the decisive thing is to become aware that the sin committed is not the last word on a person, that God’s embrace of the person who repents offers the opportunity to start fresh, always, and not because we deserve it, but out of the superabundance of grace. Saint Paul reminds us of this: who will separate us from the love of Christ? Every time we acknowledge our limit, we experience the truth of ourselves. Oscar Wilde was right: ‘A man’s very highest moment is, I have no doubt at all, when he kneels in the dust, and beats his breast, and tells all the sins of his life.’”