Yes, I know the Church itself has its own fill of intolerance and human sinfulness and lack of warmth and charity. In the Basilica of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, about which I was speaking, there is buried another great saint, St. Catherine of Siena. She was a brave and courageous woman who so loved the Church that she did not hesitate to denounce the failings and the luke-warmness of so many and she called for the Church to be the mystery of Christ in the world and to be the humble servant of all. But it was love that animated her and mercy that she implored. How rarely do we find mentioned in the public arena the quality of mercy, of forgiveness.
People say today that everyone has lost a sense of sin.
I am not sure about this. I rather think that society is haunted by an almost unbearable sense of guilt - people who are crushed by a sense of failure in their lives and in their families. Just look at the face of poverty that is seen in the world at large. How important it is that we show that people, whatever their condition, are loved for themselves and are forgiven, whatever their weakness. Our vocation as bishops, and as priests, and as lay people, has come to us at a strange twilight time as we await the dawn of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in our new Millennium.