In the early ’eighties a pamphlet was printed in Rome as an aid to a good Confession. Reprinted several times, the print-run numbered more than half a million of copies. Recently the simplest prayers of the Christian life have been added
to the pages on Confession. The new edition of the small book
has a preface by Cardinal Ratzinger
by Lucio Brunelli
At the start it was a very slim booklet
Above, the prayer booklet “Chi prega si salva“; below, the book on Confession, that 30Days published in different languages two years ago.
At the start it was a very slim booklet.
Sixteen pages, format 10x14. On the frontispiece a quotation from the Polish
philosopher Stanislaw Grygiel (a sentence commenting on the first encyclical of
John Paul II, Redemptor hominis) and the title without frills, written in large characters,
Lenten-purple in color: The Sacrament of Penitence or Confession. We were in
the early ’eighties. And no one then could have imagined that the
“mini-vademecum” on Confession, taken from the old Catechism of Saint Pius X, would
become a small best-seller. More than half a million copies, adding up the
various editions that followed on one another up to the latest version. Chi
prega si salva(Those who pray save themselves), enriched by the most beautiful prayers and chants
of the Christian Tradition and with a preface by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. But more amazing yet is the genesis of
this book. It came out of an experience undergone in Rome. It was conceived in
particular for those young people and adults who – attracted by significant
meetings – were approaching for the first time or making return, after years of
neglect, to Christian practice. Persons of all ages, gender, culture and
political opinions. It was not a question of indoctrinating them, on the model
of political party schools or, worse, of the religious sects; it would in any
case have been a waste of time: usually those involved were people endowed with
enough healthy critical spirit. Just the attraction felt in meetings with
people already Christian made it reasonable to ask the priest, or friends with
greater experience, what the Church requires, concretely, from those who want
to enter on the Christian life. Confession, also from an existential point of
view, was often the first step. The trouble with the official catechisms –
then in circulation - was their incurable diffuseness. A sea of words in which,
in the end, it was hard work even to detect the simple and essential terms of
the sacrament: the examination of conscience, the distinction between deadly and
venial sins, the grace of forgiveness. Paradoxically the question-and-answer
formula of the old Catechism was much more useful. Taking from that source -
and other documents of the Magisterium – it was possible to abridge into a few
pages everything the ordinary believer is required to know in order to make
good use of confession. It was not a nostalgic operation and even
less an ideological reaction to the decrees of the Vatican II Ecumenical
Council, from which, on the contrary, one was increasingly learning to know and
respect the spirit of dialogue and openness toward one’s fellowmen. It was
indeed the stunning discovery of the unknown treasures of Tradition. Treasures
of life. Liberating simplicity. The author of this article – one of the
“neophytes” to whom the book was addressed – recalls his surprise on learning
from those pages, for example, that according to Catholic doctrine two out of
four of the «sins that cry out to God for vengeance» (textually) were social
sins: the «oppression of the poor» and the «cheating of workers of their
wages». For one who as a boy had wanted (like so many) the communist utopia and
allowed himself to be infatuated by the verses of Pasolini and De André, the
surprise was to discover that the anti-modernist Pope was more to the “left”
than so many modern churchmen. If one indeed had at heart the fate of the
“oppressed”, there was no need to go chasing after Marx; it was enough to draw
on the Tradition of the Church. And in fact, with what wonder one browsed the
brief and practical list of the «works of corporal mercy» recommended to all
believers: to feed the hungry, give shelter to strangers, visit the sick and
imprisoned… The adorable concreteness of Christianity. One had thought of Tradition as a closed
room. Now we were discovering it was an open window. Light and fresh air.
Tradition, obviously. Just like Catholic ethics. Not moralizing: the grudge of
the miserable who can’t bear that others should enjoy themselves. Don’t think, however, that all these fine
existential discoveries were a way out of the condemnation of individual sins.
The indications of the small book were and are very clear in that regard.
Detailed. There is no better literary synthesis of the model of confession we
were offered than a passage from Miguel Mañara by Oscar Milosz. Where a newly converted Don Juan
knocks at the door of the monastery of the Caridad, in Seville; deluges the
abbot with tears and mystical expressions of reformation, but is soon halted by
these words: «Repentance of the heart is nothing if it doesn’t rise up to the
teeth and doesn’t flood the lips with bitterness… Say: I have done this, I have
done that other. Speak…». And then the good Mañara talks and talks… Murders and
rapes, not exactly the scruples of a college of young misses… And he can’t
stop, he continues reciting. Until he is in torment for his iniquities. And
then the elderly abbot halts him, again. «No need to speak more about these
poor things, these foolishnesses, my great baby, do you understand? They’re
tales to leave to those that great pride in peccadilloes still torments…». The inexpressible experience of mercy. So
thousands and thousands of young people and not so young have discovered the
heart of the Christian experience. Some days before his condition plummeted,
Don Giussani suggested as a thinking-point for Easter 2005 the ancient preface
of the Ambrosian Liturgy: «You have stooped over our wounds and you have cured
us giving us a medicine stronger than our sores, a mercy greater than our
guilt. So sin also, in virtue of your invincible love, has served to elevate us
to the divine life». The utility even of sin. In stirring the pity of an Other.
Because it is not us, by our own efforts, by our own will, who gain the
sighed-for happiness. Pius XII used to say in the ’fifties that
the drama of modernity is to have lost awareness of sin. Today, perhaps, people
are living through a greater drama. Having lost all illusion of the natural
goodness of mankind, they experience evil as a dark, destructive and incurable
remorse. They no longer know, because they no longer experience it, that their
own evil can be healed and forgiven. And this probably is precisely the cause
of that immense affective and psychological frailty that is visible to all,
above all to the young.
The return of the prodigal son, Rembrandt, etching, Pierpont Morgan Library, New York
All this we learned, thanks also to the
book on the Sacrament of Penance. Even those who had been going to Church for
years began to use the booklet. Many priests and numerous parish communities –
first in Rome and then in other cities - requested it. A spread outward from
below, spontaneous. Both the weekly Il Sabato and the monthly 30Days gave it to their readers as an insert.
Providing telephone number where individual believers or parishes could ask for
further copies at a moderate price. The reprints came every few years: October
1990, November 1991, February 1995… In ecclesiastical circles some people
turned up their noses, not understanding the positive and non-polemical spirit
of the initiative. But there was important recognition also. In May 1995 the
regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary, Monsignor Luigi De Magistris, sent a
letter of praise (and some precious suggestions) to the editor of 30Days. Adding that the book had been «pointed
out by us of the Penitentiary to the central Committee for the Holy Year in
relation to the preparation – when the right time comes - of booklets for the
pilgrims». And that the idea was exceedingly wise could be seen afterwards,
when we journalists witnessed the great influx of pilgrims for the 2000 Holy
Year, who were often not helped at all, however, with simple means to
experience the essential dimension of every jubilee year, precisely the
Sacrament of Confession. In fact, given the great demand, reprints
of the book continued throughout the ’nineties. The last one I have traced
dates to 1998. Three years later, the first edition of Chi prega si salva
(Those who pray save themselves) was published. On its own it sold 120,000 copies. The pocket 10x14
format remained. But the pages grew to 134. To the old part on Confession were
added other sections with the more important prayers of Christian piety: from
the Angelus to the Regina
Coeli, to the Acts of
faith, hope, and charity,
to the mysteries of the Holy Rosary. The spirit has always remained that of the
beginnings, 25 years ago. And the most incredible thing, today, is to see boys
and girls, with clothes and hobbies like their contemporaries, reciting the
same prayers as our grandmothers, with the same adorable simplicity and
feeling. True metropolitan miracles.
