Reconciliation and Penance

The post-synodal apostolic exhortation 'on reconciliation and penance in the mission of the Church today', dated 2 December 1984, the first Sunday of Advent. It gathers the work of the Sixth General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which met in 1983 on this theme during the Holy Year of the Redemption. Part One, on conversion and reconciliation as the Church's task, opens with the parable of the prodigal son and its two brothers, traces reconciliation to its source in the Cross, and treats the Church as reconciled and reconciling. Part Two, 'the love that is greater than sin', considers the mystery of sin: personal and social sin, the distinction between mortal and venial sin, and the loss of the sense of sin in contemporary culture. Part Three turns to the pastoral ministry of penance: catechesis, the means of reconciliation such as prayer and dialogue, and the sacrament of penance itself, with its three forms of celebration and the limits on general absolution. A concluding expression of hope ends the document.