Before the “loss of the sense of sin” and “the crisis” of “the sacrament of penance” there is a need to establish a “dialogue of salvation” with penitents, following the example of the Holy Curé of Ars, and to “get back to the confessional” also seen as a “place in which to ‘dwell’ more often”.
Benedict XVI addressed this invitation to the participants in the course promoted by the Pontifical Penitentiary received in audience today. Recalling that the course “is providentially taking place in the Year for Priests”, proclaimed to mark the 150th anniversary of death of St. John Mary Vianney, the Pope highlighted the “heroic and fruitful way” in which the Saint exercised the reconciliation ministry and “the method of ‘dialogue of salvation’ which must find its place in it”.
“We live in a cultural context marked by a hedonistic and relativistic mentality, which tends to remove God from the horizon of life, and hinder the acquisition of a clear framework of values, the ability to distinguish good from evil and the development of a mature sense of sin”, explained the Pontiff. A “vicious circle between blurring of the experience of God and the loss of the sense of sin” that “makes the service rendered by the dispensers of divine mercy all the more urgent”.