A piece in last week’s Vatican News reported on an invitation from Pope Leo to Christians who bear responsibility for war, to make a serious examination of their conscience. I expect the Iran conflict was in his mind.
In his address to priests and seminarians seeking training on conducting confessions, the Pope reflected on the power that the sacrament of confession has to foster peace and unity between nations and between individual people.
“One might ask: do those Christians who bear serious responsibility in armed conflicts have the humility and courage to make a serious examination of conscience and to go to confession?” he considered. The Sacrament of Reconciliation, he added, offers a “laboratory of unity,” through its power to restore unity between the penitent and God.
But confession also teaches people to live in unity with one another: “The dynamic of unity with God, with the Church, and within ourselves is a presupposition for peace among peoples,” said Pope Leo. “Only a reconciled person is capable of living in an unarmed and disarming way!”
Read the full story in Vatican News here.