Pope: Confession helps growing number of those with 'guilt complexes'

Published: 2007-03-16

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Many people today seem to have a difficult time recognizing sin, but at the same time the number of people suffering from "guilt complexes" seems to be growing, Pope Benedict XVI said. "We see a humanity that wants to be self-sufficient, where not a few maintain they can do without God and still live well, and yet so many seem sadly condemned to face dramatic situations" of emptiness, violence and solitude, the pope said March 16. "Today it seems that a 'sense of sin' has been lost, but in return 'guilt complexes' have increased," he told priests and seminarians participating in a Vatican-sponsored course on the sacrament of confession. Only Jesus, who died "to defeat forever the power of evil with the omnipotence of divine love," can free people from "the yoke of death" that oppresses them, the pope said. The sacrament of confession, he said, makes the love and mercy of God visible and gives people the grace they need to continue fighting sin.

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