The sources of suffering, division and conflict are many. The source of healing and reconciliation is one: God. In its anguish humanity yearns for healing and reconciliation. God sent Jesus Christ into our midst to re-establish communion among us and to heal the wounds of division. God’s reconciling work begun in Jesus Christ continues in the Church, which has been called the sacrament of reconciliation, a community reconciled and reconciling.

Reconciliation is the restoration of communion between those whose bond of mutual belonging has been impaired or even severed. Reconciliation is based on the principle that what is common among human beings ought to prevail over every discord. This should be especially the concern of Jesus’ disciples, whose common bond through Baptism demands that they be responsible for building the unity of the Church and who have been given the missionary responsibility of building the unity of the entire human race. Therefore, the Paulists have undertaken a reconciliation initiative to develop a wide pastoral process to address the needs of listening, healing, dialogue and reconciliation in the Church today.

A Reflection

Jesus Christ, present in Scripture and sacrament, is central to all that we do; he must always be the measure and not what is measured.

Around this central conviction, the church's leadership, both clerical and lay, must reaffirm and promote the full range and demands of authentic unity, acceptable diversity, and respectful dialogue, not just as a way to dampen conflict but as a way to make our conflicts constructive, and ultimately as a way to understand for ourselves and articulate for our world the meaning of discipleship of Jesus Christ.

-Catholic Common Ground Initiative, Resources for Dialogue, 2006