Pope Benedict XVI Address to the Internal Forum organized by the Apostolic Penitentiary

(March 11, 2010) Pope Benedict XVI said that the priests must accept the confessional as a place in which to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, as well as a place to live their fidelity to God, because there the faithful find mercy, counsel and comfort, and feel loved and understood by God while experiencing the presence of the Divine Mercy. He was addressing the Participants of the Internal Forum organised by the Apostolic Penitentiary on Thursday, 11^th of March in Rome. The Apostolic Penitentiary, earlier called the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary, is a tribunal of the Roman Curia, responsible for issues relating to the forgiveness of sins. The Pope added that having organised the course in the 150^th anniversary of the Holy Curé of Ars, we priests can learn not only the inexhaustible faith in the Sacrament of Penance, that encourages us to put it back at the heart of our pastoral concerns, but also the method of "dialogue of salvation" through which we experience divine mercy and love. The Pontiff then referred to the cultural context in which we live, which is marked by a hedonistic and relativistic mentality, with a feeling of absence of God and the absence of the sense of sin. In similar circumstances, the Holy Priest of Ars led people to God though a spirit of prayer, towards personal and intimate relationship with Christ, to the celebration of Holy Mass, Eucharistic adoration and apostolic poverty, and brought them to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Inviting the priests to give themselves generously to the confessionals, the Holy Father said that as in the Mass Christ places himself in the hands of the priest to continue to be present among his people, similarly, in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, he relies on the priest to provide the experience the embrace with which the father received back the prodigal son, giving him the dignity and full restoration.