David Biema Pope Quotations

The pope has long promised to lead the church in coming to terms with some of its sins on the occasion of the Jubilee. For him, it's the culmination of many years of work, as a pontiff who lost a lot of his Jewish friends during the horror of the Holocaust and questioned the complicity of his own faith as a result.

Even when they released the 'Memory and Reconciliation' document, the Vatican made clear that there were different camps inside the church, some of whom felt the church was going too far in its apology and others who believe it hadn't gone far enough. Although this pope has gone a lot further than any in history toward acknowledging corporate responsibility on the part of the church, he's pushing against significant opposition, and the outcome will still be regarded as insufficient in some quarters.