MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: It is a day of pardon in St. Peter's Basilica. Pope John Paul II asked for forgiveness for the sins of Roman Catholics all through the ages. CNN's Jim Bittermann is in Rome, and he's on the phone now with details on this history-making Mass -- Jim.</s>JIM BITTERMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Miles, the pope declared back in 1994 that the church could not enter the third millennium without facing the fact that in its last 2,000 years it has not always lived up to the very values it preaches. So with that as a starting point, a pontifical commission spent three years preparing for today, drawing up the terms for a general confession of sins that seeks forgiveness for wrongs such as the Crusades, the Inquisition, forced conversions of non-Christians, and sins of omission and commission against the Jews.</s>POPE JOHN PAUL II (through translator): Help us to accept the grace of forgiveness that the Jubilee is offering us today. May Lent in this extraordinarily holy year be for all believers and for every man that is seeking God, may it be a favorable time, a time of reconciliation, a time of salvation. Amen.</s>BITTERMANN: It was papal penitence that has caused some controversy within the church. Some say it will appear as a sign of weakness, or that modern Catholics have no reason to apologize for the sins of their predecessors. But the church's experts say that while sin is always personal, the church cannot ignore the consequences of sins committed over the centuries by those acting in its behalf. Already some, such as Jewish leaders, say today's act of repentance does not go far enough and not specifically enough. The pope only alluded to the Holocaust without mentioning it directly. Others, such as homosexual and women's leaders, say some church wrongs are ongoing. But whatever the critics' opinions, the pope has been determined to make a clean breast of things as the church enters the new millennium, and he has now done that. Jim Bittermann, CNN, reporting live from Rome.
Pope John Paul II Asks For Forgiveness For Sins of All Roman Catholics