To heal, not accuse

Amidst the ongoing, emotive debate in Ireland on aspects of the confessional, a reminder from Blessed John Paul II on the healing nature of the Sacrament of Reconciliation - words that will reflect the pastoral experience of those Anglicans who benefit from this Sacrament:

As it reflects on the function of this sacrament, the church's consciousness discerns in it, over and above the character of judgment in the sense just mentioned, a healing of a medicinal character. And this is linked to the fact that the Gospel frequently presents Christ as healer, while his redemptive work is often called, from Christian antiquity, medicina salutis. "I wish to heal, not accuse," St. Augustine said, referring to the exercise of the pastoral activity regarding penance, and it is thanks to the medicine of confession that the experience of sin does not degenerate into despair.