By Rita McInerney

Penance is a sacrament and a season, a constant, never-ending attitude of conversion, according to Father Bob Blondell, a Michigan priest who presented a clergy conference for 110 priests of the archdiocese Jan. 25 at Ignatius House. “We’re all in that state,” he said.

The conference was called by Archbishop Eugene A. Marino, S.S.J., “to place a special emphasis on the importance of the Sacrament of Penance. Lent seems to be the most appropriate time for such an emphasis.”

At the start of the daylong conference, the archbishop spoke of his pleasure at being able to meet and talk with so many of the priests at one time. He mentioned his regret at not being able to accept some of their first-choice dates for parish visits and said the appointment of Father Peter Dora as administrative assistant has facilitated scheduling and “would make it easier for you to have access to me. He is not there in a position to put a layer between us.”

Archbishop Marino said the upcoming Confirmation schedule means a “hard five or six months for all of us” and asked the priests for patience and understanding. “I want to be available to you, my principal collaborators,” he said.

He concluded a brief opening prayer by asking God’s grace in making all the clergy “more deeply committed to bringing your son Jesus to the people we serve.”

In his opening talk, Father Blondell, pastor of St. Ephrem’s Church in Sterling Heights, a suburb of Detroit, said when the catechumenate program was begun in his parish, it revealed the need for helping alienated Catholics in addition to converts.

He went on to discuss the various levels of the alienated: The unaware, those “with the Church as children,” who drift away and are not heard from until, as young engaged couples, they ask “to rent the church for our wedding.” They are often called back by matrimony.

The truly alienated carry hurt and anger from past encounters with the Church’s representatives, that a simple act of absolution would not get rid of, the priest continued. They need a cleric to explain away the hurt and a forum at which they “can spill it out.”

Still another level are those alienated by the bishops’ letters on the economy, nuclear disarmament and women’s concerns; those who left because women are permitted to give Communion or because of the Church’s stand on homosexuality. Such estrangement, he added, is only going to be solved by “long years of dialogue.”

In his own large, middle-class parish, there is now a viable Order of Penitents which developed after he asked himself why the church was filled to overflowing twice a year, at Easter and Christmas, and only half-full the other Sundays of the year. The Order of Penitents is a special program which helps alienated Catholics return to the Church.

Its passage through healing to reconciliation is based on church practices from the earliest centuries.

“There is a continental shift happening in the Church from the life of the individual to the life of the community,” Father Blondell said in introducing his morning talk.

Church historians of this century, he said, studied early church rites and found a strong parallel between the Order of Penitents and the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults.

Reconciliation, Father Blondell emphasized, has been done in a church structure - with peace and order. Contemporary church historians, in their research into early penitential customs, found there was a public aspect to penance. “Sins known by the community had to be submitted to a process of working out the penance and then coming back to celebrate.”

By the fourth century, historians found, church leaders agreed that sinners could be readmitted through stages. The process usually would begin on Ash Wednesday, when the layers, or weepers as they were known, would be stripped of their festival clothes and given coarse habits into which goathairs had been woven.

The bishop of the fledgling churches in Antioch and Alexandria, which Father Blondell compared to large parishes of today for numbers of faithful, would pray over the penitents before they were cast out of the back door of the cathedrals. Then they would lie down on the church steps and beg those entering the cathedral “please remember me when you get to the table,” because they believed the praying community had tremendous power of intercessory prayer.

From there they progressed to kneelers in the back of the church while others gathered about the altar for Eucharistic prayers. As kneelers they had to leave before this prayer.

The next stage was standers where they stood behind the faithful around the altar. The fourth and final stage, usually on Holy Thursday, was communicants. Then the archdeacon would lead them in and gather them around the archbishop’s throne. The bishop would come down and prostrate himself on the altar, shedding tears for absolution of the sinners. The washing off of the ashes from Ash Wednesday, the imposition of hands by the bishop, embrace and kiss of peace completed the reconciliation order.

Throughout the penitential season, the priest continued, deacons and presbyters would pray the psalms over the penitents. The penitents also were required to have others pray and fast with them and each penitent was expected to turn away from self and “meet Christ in the faces of the poor.”

Throughout Lent, Father Blondell said, the placing of hands on the heads of the penitents was frequent and the final time, by the archbishop, was called the absolute imposition.

“We began to call it absoution,” Father Blondell said. The penitents then returned, with new relationships to the Eucharist, the “valid gathering of people at the table of the Lord.”

Later, during the three afternoon mini-sessions, Father Blondell recounted how the ancient ritual has been adapted to contemporary circumstances and offered practical suggestions to his clergy audience on how to implement this journey of reconciliation with the help of the community.

Father James Schillinger, director of continuing education for the clergy, called the conference a “great success.” Following the morning and afternoon sessions, the Jesuit community at Ignatius House were hosts to about 40 priests for dinner.