” “” ” This Ash Wednesday was all about penance and the demand for forgiveness, for the Polish priests who have thus responded to the appeal for reconciliation and trust between priests and devotees, made by the Bishops on 14th January just after the affair of mgr. Wielgus, who had been charged with collaborationism with the communist services. In the dioceses of Warsaw and Warsaw-Prague, the priests asked to be "forgiven for failing faith and the Gospel, for their unfaithfulness to the commandment of love, for their indifference to sufferings and for collusions due to fear or to the longing for success". The celebrations began with a procession of the Gospel, followed by the adoration of the Holy Sacrament, after which the priests could approach the sacrament of reconciliation and renew their canon vows, "as a sign of spiritual rebirth". "People see our sins, but they will not reject our service if they see the humbleness of our attitudes, of our words and our eyes. Then they will understand that we too confide in God”, commented father Jozef Augustyn, spiritual director and editor-in-chief of the quarterly magazine “Zycie duchowe” (“Spiritual life”). ” ” ” “
