The Ash Wednesday of the Polish clergy was wholly dedicated to penance and to the request for forgiveness. Polish priests were thus responding to the appeal for reconciliation and trust between priests and faithful, made by the bishops on 14 January, after the case of Monsignor Wielgus, who had been accused of having collaborated with the Communist secret services. In the dioceses of Warsaw and Warsaw Prague priests asked for “forgiveness for their shortcoming towards the faith and the Gospel, for infidelity to the commandment of love, for indifference to the sufferings of others and for collusion caused either by fear or by the wish for success”. During the liturgy the priests implored: “forgive our conduct, as a result of which the dignity of man was humiliated; forgive the attitudes that aroused indignation and caused moral injuries. Imbue us with the love that always joyfully, and without arrogance, accompanies the truth”, recalling also the cases when “to discharge the tasks assigned to them they adopted methods incompatible with the Gospel”. The celebrations began with the procession of the Gospel, followed by the adoration of the Holy Sacrament, after which the clergy had the chance to take the sacrament of reconciliation and renew their canonical vows, “as a sign of spiritual rebirth”. “People see our sins, but they will not refuse our service if they see the humility of our attitudes, words, and conduct. They will understand that we too trust in God”, commented Father Jozef Augustyn, spiritual director and editor in chief of the quarterly journal Zycie duchowe (“The Spiritual Life”).
