Catholic guilt appears to be catching up with the Church as the millennium comes to a close, and Pope John Paul II wants to begin the next thousand years with a clean slate. So the pontiff, addressing his regular weekly crowd at the Vatican on Wednesday, apologized for past excesses and set aside 8 March 2000 as "Request for Forgiveness" day. Although he didn't specify which sins the Church would like to purge, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of history can probably think of a few: its shoddy treatment of the Jews, its failure to protect human rights in a thousand different places, and the less-than-stellar people skills exhibited by its missionaries during the forced conversions of the heathen. Oh, and then there's the Inquisition.
Mea Culpa
Catholic guilt appears to be catching up with the Church as the millennium comes to a close, and Pope John Paul II wants to begin the next thousand years with a clean slate. So the pontiff, addressing his regular weekly crowd at the Vatican on Wednesday, apologized for past excesses and set aside 8 March 2000 as "Request for Forgiveness" day. Although he didn't specify which sins the Church would like to purge, anyone with a rudimentary knowledge of history can probably think of a few: its shoddy treatment of the Jews, its failure to protect human rights in a thousand different places, and the less-than-stellar people skills exhibited by its missionaries during the forced conversions of the heathen. Oh, and then there's the Inquisition.
