Vatican City, Mar 13, 2005 / 22:00 pm
In a message made public Saturday by the Vatican, the Pope expressed the urgency of the call to conversion and need to confess one’s sins.
The message, dated March 8th and written from the Gemelli hospital, was addressed to Cardinal James F. Stafford, major penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary, to his collaborators, to father confessors of Roman basilicas, and to numerous other priests.
It comes on the occasion of an annual course on the internal forum, organized by the Tribunal of the Apostolic Penitentiary.
John Paul wrote that, "We live in a society that often seems to have lost a sense of God and of sin. In this context, Christ's call to conversion becomes ever more urgent, a call that presupposes confession of one's own sins and the consequent request for forgiveness and salvation."