“An excuse is worse and more terrible than a lie, for an excuse is a lie guarded” — Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul made many apologies during his pontificate, allowing the healing process to begin.
- People convicted by the Inquisition
- Muslims killed by the Crusaders
- The legal process on the Italian scientist and philosopher Galilleo around 1633.
- Catholic involvement with the African slave trade
- The Church’s role in burnings at the stake
- The religious wars that followed the Protestant Reformation
- The injustices committed against women, the violation of women’s rights and for the historical denigration of women.
- The inactivity and silence of many Catholics during the Holocaust
- For violating “the rights of ethnic groups and peoples, and [for showing] contempt for their cultures and religious traditions”.
- For the actions of the Crusader attack on Constantinople in 1204.
- 2001 Pope John Paul II sent his first e-mail apologizing for the Catholic sex abuse cases,
- Church-backed “Stolen Generations” of Aboriginal children in Australia
- For the behaviour of Catholic missionaries in colonial times in China
See: Canada, Child Abuse – Francis refuses invitation to apologise
Follow: Letters to Priests