In the Confessional, A Penitent Pope

Asked by Italy's most-prominent daily earlier this month for an assessment of his first year as Pope, Francis demurred, saying "I only do that every fifteen days, with my confessor."Even if he's taken to the sacraments for his latest general audience series, over the last 54 weeks, Papa Bergoglio's spoken of none more frequently or urgently than Confession, Penance, Reconciliation – whatever you call it. And for a Pope who continues to be both championed and castigated as some sort of raving iconoclast, the ecclesial Left's post-Conciliar ambivalence at best toward "the box" should serve as a reminder that the reality of things is rather more complex than the chattering-class polarities of these days tend to admit.Indeed, were the buzz to hold due weight, a truly "progressive" Pope would wind back his predecessors' crackdown on the "third rite" of the sacrament – the liturgical name for general absolution without individual confession, which had become prevalent in some quarters over recent decades until Rome took to enforcing the caveat that it was only intended for situations where massive numbers of penitents were in imminent danger of death. With Francis – who has attributed his own conversion to an experience in the Confessional – any return to box-free absolution is about as likely as the restoration of the tiara.Even that, however, was merely a prelude for what happened in the basilica tonight. At a Lenten service with the second rite of penance – communal examination of conscience with individual confessions – Francis took it on himself to lead by example.Fullvideo below – the camera pans away at points, but keeps returning....The footage is, indeed, unprecedented – while John Paul II routinely heard the confessions of 12 laymen every Good Friday in St Peter's and B16 spent some time administering the sacrament in a Madrid park at World Youth Day 2011, no Pope has ever been seen as a penitent.The exercise wasn't just one for the Vatican, either – the penance service doubled as the launch of "24 Hours for the Lord," a global initiative of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization that asked the dioceses of the world to provide round-the-clock opportunity for confession in at least one church at some point over this fourth weekend of Lent.While Francis plugged the event as "a feast of forgiveness" at his Sunday Angelus – and the dioceses of the world were reportedly alerted in February – as of press time, only two US churches are known to have joined the effort: San Antonio and Juneau. The PCPNE has expressed the intent that the "24 hours" will become an annual opportunity over the days around Laetare Sunday.-30-