Pope Francis's Prayer for Forgiveness in Ireland
The Pope prayed this prayer in Phoenix Park, Dublin on August 26, 2018.

We ask forgiveness for the cases of abuse... the abuse of power, the abuse of conscience and sexual abuse on the part of representatives of the Church.
In a special way, we ask forgiveness for all those abuses that took place in different kinds of institutions directed by men and women religious and other members of the Church. We also ask forgiveness for cases in which many minors were exploited for their labour.
We ask forgiveness for all those times when, as a Church, we did not offer to the survivors of any type of abuse compassion and the pursuit of justice and truth by concrete actions. We ask forgiveness.
We ask forgiveness for some members of the hierarchy who took no responsibility for these painful situations and kept silent. We ask forgiveness.
We ask forgiveness those children who were taken away from their mothers and for all those times when so many single mothers who tried to find their children that had been taken away, or those children who tried to find their mothers, were told that this was a mortal sin. It is not a mortal sin; it is the fourth commandment! We ask forgiveness.
May the Lord preserve and increase this sense of shame and repentance, and grant us the strength to ensure that it never happens again and that justice is done. Amen.

Renew Prayer for Healing

Loving God and Father,
in the light of so much suffering
we come before you as your hurting people
in need of healing.
Knowing we are a Church of saints and sinners,
we acknowledge our own sinfulness
and ask forgiveness for the times we have injured or neglected others.
Knowing we are called to holiness,
we trust you to lead us on our journey to be a renewed Church, 
for which you all things are possible.
Christ Jesus, walk among us.
Embrace us with your healing.  Grace us to seek reconciliation.
Empower us to love as you love,
because healing, reconciliation and love
are beyond our human capacity alone.
Spirit of God, seize our hearts.
Awaken us to gratitude and newness of life.  Amen.
( Courtesy of Renew International)

•   •   •

A Prayer of Healing

God of endless love,
ever caring, ever strong,
always present, always just:
You gave your only Son
to save us by the blood of his cross.

Gentle Jesus, shepherd of peace,
join to your own suffering
the pain of all who have been hurt
in body, mind, and spirit
by those who betrayed the trust placed in them.

Hear our cries as we agonize
over the harm done to our brothers and sisters.
Breathe wisdom into our prayers,
soothe restless hearts with hope,
steady shaken spirits with faith:
Show us the way to justice and wholeness,
enlightened by truth and enfolded in your mercy.

Holy Spirit, comforter of hearts,
heal your people’s wounds
and transform our brokenness.
Grant us courage and wisdom, humility and grace,
so that we may act with justice
and find peace in you.
We ask this through Christ, our Lord. Amen.
(Courtesy of the United States Conference of Bishops)

•   •   •

Prayer for Inner Healing

   Dear Lord Jesus, please come and heal my wounded and troubled heart. I beg you to heal the torments that are causing anxiety in my life. I beg you, in a particular way, to heal the underlying source of my fear and doubt. I beg you to come into my life and heal the psychological harms that struck me in my childhood and from the injuries they have caused throughout my life.
   Lord Jesus, you know my burdens. I lay them on your Good Shepherd’s heart. I beseech you—by the merits of the great open wound in your own heart—to heal the wounds that are in mine. Heal my memories, so that nothing that has happened to me will cause me to remain in pain and anguish, filled with anxiety, fear or guilt.
   Heal, O Lord, all those wounds that have been the cause of evil that is rooted in my life. I want to forgive all those who have offended me. Look to those inner wounds that make me unable to forgive. You who came to forgive the afflicted of heart, heal my wounded and troubled heart.
   Heal, O Lord Jesus, all those intimate wounds that are the root cause of my physical and emotional pain. I offer you my heart. Accept it, Lord, purify it, and give me the sentiments of your Divine Heart.
   Heal me, O Lord, from the pain caused by the death of my loved ones. Grant me to regain peace and joy in the knowledge that you are the Resurrection and the Life. Make me an authentic witness to your resurrection, your victory over sin and death, and your loving presence among all men.
   Amen.

•   •   •

Prayer for Healing for Victims of Abuse
 
Praise to you, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, 
source of all consolation and hope. 
By your Son's dying and rising He remains our light in every darkness, 
our strength in every weakness.
Be the refuge and guardian of all who suffer from abuse and violence.
Comfort them and send healing for their wounds of body, soul and spirit.
Rescue them from bitterness and shame
and refresh them with your love.
Heal the brokenness in all victims of abuse
and revive the spirits of all who lament this sin.
Help us to follow Jesus in drawing good from evil, life from death.
Make us one with you in your love for justice
as we deepen our respect for the dignity of every human life.
Giver of peace, make us one in celebrating your praise, 
both now and for ever.  Amen.
+ John F. Kinney,  Bishop of Saint Cloud, MN
© 2002 Diocese of St. Cloud. All rights reserved.

•   •   •

General Intercession for Good Friday
 
Let us pray for the victims of sexual abuse,
in particular for children who were abused by clergy;
that God may grant to those whose innocence was violated
the grace of healing and new life.
(Silent prayer)
Almighty and eternal God,
be the refuge and guardian
of all who suffer from abuse and violence.
Heal their wounds of body, soul and spirit;
rescue them from shame and guilt;
and refresh them with your love.
We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.

•   •   •

A Public Confession

The following is the text of a confession read on March 31, 2010 in St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna by Cardinal Christoph Schönborn and Catholic theologian Veronica Prüller-Jagenteuful.  The confession was proclaimed in the context of a liturgy of lamentation and penance held in response to many cases of physical and sexual abuse which were revealed in Austria and elsewhere in recent weeks.
Triune God, you led our mothers and fathers out of slavery into freedom and taught them the 10 commandments of a good life. You became flesh in Jesus Christ and showed us that love is the fundamental rule in all things. You are with us as Holy Spirit to lead us.
   And yet we become sinful before you and before one another. Enormous sin has been revealed in these weeks. It is the sin of the individual. It is the sin permeating structures, models of acting, and models of thinking. It is the sin of not offering help and not daring to speak up.
   The responsibility for this concerns us as members of the church in widely varying degrees. And yet, we are your people together and we stand in common responsibility. And so we confess to you and to one another our sin:
   We confess that we have not followed God alone, but rather have followed the gods of our need for lording over and superiority.
   Some of us have, precisely in that sense, abused others, even children.
   We confess that we have obscured and betrayed the name of God which means love.
   Some of us have preached the love of God and yet have done evil to our charges.
   We confess that we have not kept holy and not sufficiently valued the sacraments and other times and places of special encounter with God.
   Some of us have used these as opportunity for assault.
   We confess that we have not maintained between adults and children relationships of unconditional respect for the other.
   Some of us have used and destroyed the trust of children.
   We confess that we have not takes seriously the destruction of life and happiness in life, that we have not understood the destruction and we have trivialized it.
   Some of us have become guilty of the inner murder of other people.
   We confess that we have not cherished bodiliness and have failed in the task of rightly living out our sexuality.
   Some of us have done sexual violence.
   We confess that we have wanted to possess youth, beauty, and vitality for ourselves.
   Some of us have stolen childhood from boys and girls and robbed them of the capability of living out successful relationships.
   We confess that we did not wish to acknowledge the reality, that we covered up and bore false witness.
   Some of us have been able thereby to further delude ourselves and others and continue the criminality.
   We confess that we have wished to have control over others and possess them.
   Some of us have thereby usurped the bodies of the weakest ones.
   We confess that we craved security, calm, power, and reputation.
   For some of us the Church’s appearance of sinlessness was more important than anything else.
   We, the People of God, his Church, bear this sin with one another.
   We confess this sin to those many people whom we as Church and some of us as particular individuals have sinned against.
   We confess this sin to one another, for the Church has become sinful in its members.
   We confess our sin to God.
   We are ready to take on our responsibility for the past and the present, individually and communally. We are ready to renew our models of thinking and acting according to the Spirit of Jesus and to collaborate in the healing of wounds. We place ourselves as Church before the judgment of Christ.
   O Christ, you said that you have taken our sin upon you. And yet we implore you today: Leave some of it for us. Help us not to brush it away too quickly, and make us ready to take it on: each one for individual sin and all of us together for common sin. And then give us hope in judgment: hope for new freedom coming from truth, and for that forgiveness for which we have no claim.
   Amen.

•   •   •

A Prayer for Angry Catholics
By Fr. James Martin SJ

   Dear God, sometimes I get so angry at your church.
   I know that I’m not alone. So many people who love your church feel frustrated with the Body of Christ on earth. Priests and deacons, and brothers and sisters, can feel frustrated, too. And I’ll bet that even bishops and popes feel frustrated. We grow worried and concerned and bothered and angry and sometimes scandalized because your divine institution, our home, is filled with human beings who are sinful. Just like me.
   But I get frustrated most of all when I feel that there are things that need to be changed and I don’t have the power to change them.
   So I need your help, God.
   Help me to remember that Jesus promised that he would be with us until the end of time, and that your church is always guided by the Holy Spirit, even if it’s hard for me to see. Sometimes change happens suddenly, and the Spirit astonishes us, but often in the church it happens slowly. In your time, not mine. Help me know that the seeds that I plant with love in the ground of your church will one day bloom. So give me patience.
   Help me to understand that there was never a time when there were not arguments or disputes within your church. Arguments go all the way back to Peter and Paul debating one another. And there was never a time when there wasn’t sin among the members of your church. That kind of sin goes back to Peter denying Jesus during his Passion. Why would today’s church be any different than it was for people who knew Jesus on earth? Give me wisdom.
   Help me to trust in the Resurrection.The Risen Christ reminds us that there is always the hope of something new. Death is never the last word for us. Neither is despair. And help me remember that when the Risen Christ appeared to his disciples, he bore the wounds of his Crucifixion. Like Christ, the church is always wounded, but always a carrier of grace. Give me hope.
   Help me to believe that your Spirit can do anything: raise up saints when we need them most, soften hearts when they seem hardened, open minds when they seem closed, inspire confidence when all seems lost, help us do what had seemed impossible until it was done. This is the same Spirit that converted Paul, inspired Augustine, called Francis of Assisi, emboldened Catherine of Siena, consoled Ignatius of Loyola, comforted Thérèse of Lisieux, enlivened John XXIII, accompanied Teresa of Calcutta, strengthened Dorothy Day and encouraged John Paul II. It is the same Spirit that it with us today, and your Spirit has lost none of its power. Give me faith.
   Help me to remember all your saints. Most of them had it a lot worse than I do. They were frustrated with your church at times, struggled with it, and were occasionally persecuted by it. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake by church authorities. Ignatius of Loyola was thrown into jail by the Inquisition.  Mary MacKillop was excommunicated. If they can trust in your church in the midst of those difficulties, so can I. Give me courage.
   Help me to be peaceful when people tell me that I don’t belong in the church, that I’m a heretic for trying to make things better, or that I’m not a good Catholic. I know that I was baptized. You called me by name to be in your church, God. As long as I draw breath, help me remember how the holy waters of baptism welcomed me into your holy family of sinners and saints. Let the voice that called me into your church be what I hear when other voices tell me that I’m not welcome in the church. Give me peace.
   Most of all, help me to place all of my hope in your Son. My faith is in Jesus Christ. Give me only his love and his grace. That’s enough for me.
   Help me God, and help your church.
   Amen.

•   •   •

Prayer for a Suffering Church
By Bishop Robert Barron

   Lord Jesus Christ, through your Incarnation you accepted a human nature and lived a real, human life.  Setting aside the glory of your divinity, you met us face to face in the vulnerability of our humanity.
   Though without sin, you accepted sinners, offering forgiveness and placing yourself before even the most unworthy as a servant and a friend.  You became small and weak in the estimation of the powerful so that you might elevate to glory the small and weak of the world.
   Your descent into our nature was not without risk, as it exposed you to the assaults of the darkest and most terrifying of humanity's fallen desires -- our cruelty and narrowness, our deceptions and our denials.  All this culminated in the cross, where your divine love was met with the full fury of our malice, our violence, and our estrangement from your grace.
   You offered yourself to us with innocence and receptivity, and this was met with the abuse of your body, humiliation and mockery, betrayal and isolation, torture and death.  All this -- even the dereliction of feeling abandoned by God -- you accepted.  You became a victim, so that all those victimized since the beginning of the world would know you as their advocate.  You went into darkness so that all those compelled into the dark by human wickedness would discover in you a radiant light.
   Grant, we pray O Lord, healing for all victims of sexual abuse.  Purify your Church of corruption.  Bring justice to those who have been wronged.  Grant consolation to all who are afflicted.  Cast your light to banish the shadows of deception.  Manifest to all your advocacy of those who have been so cruelly hurt, and your judgment upon those who, having perpetrated such crimes, remain unrepentant.  Compel those in your Church whom you have entrusted to safeguard the innocent and act on behalf of the victims to be vigilant and zealous in their duties.  Restore faith to those from whom it has been stolen and hope to those who have despaired.
   Christ the Victim, we call out to you!  Strengthen your faithful to accept the mission placed before us, a mission of holiness and truth.  Inspire us to become advocates of those who have been harmed.  Grant us strength to fight for justice.  Impart to us courage so that we might forthrightly face the challenges to come.  Raise up saints from your Church, and grant us the grace to become the saints you desire us to be. 
   This we ask of you, who live and reign with the Father and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.
   Amen.

•   •   •

Prayer for the Future
By Sr. Nuala Kenny SC

   God of love, you gave your only Son to save us by his blood on the cross.  Join to your Son's suffering the pain of all who have been hurt in body, mind and spirit by those who betrayed the trust placed in them.  Hear the cries of our brothers and sisters who have been gravely harmed, and grant them justice and healing, through our participation in the work of the Holy Spirit.
   We pray for atonement and healing as we acknowledge the hurt, anger and shame our Church has experienced through the sexual abuse of children and vulnerable adults.  We confess the profound damage done to the proclamation of Christ's gospel in our homes, parishes and communities.  We place before God's healing love the innocent ones and before God's judgment those guilty of misusing their power.
   For the crimes and sins of sexual and physcial abuse perpetrated by clergy and servants of the Church against children and young people; for the failure to respect, nurture and cherish young people--especially the most vulnerable....
   For the immense psychological harm and lasting spiritual devastation caused to survivors of abuse by Church representatives....
   For the failure of bishops when they did not respond as good and compassionate shepherds to victims of abuse by priests; for the practice of covering up crimes of abuse that caused more instances of sexual abuse; for the scandal caused in the hearts and minds of the faithful....
   For the sins of those clergy who not only abused God's children, but abuse God's people by failing to carry out their pastoral responsibilities....
   For the anguish and distress caused to the families and friends of those abused; for the burdens they carry and the injuries inflicted on their loved ones....
   For those who died prematurely or who took their own lives as a consequence of the spiritual, psychological and emotional damage they suffered through abuse....
   Heavenly Father, in every age you have been our refuge.  Yet again and still, we stand before you asking for protection on your Church, with all her strengths and weaknesses.
   May Jesus, our High Priest and the Church's one foundation, continue to lead his Church in every thought and action of his disciples, that through him our Church can be an instrument of justice, a source of consolation, a sacrament of unity, and a manifestation of ther good news of healing and reconciliation.
   May the Holy Spirit fill the hearts of the faithful that we may renew the face and Body of the Church.
   We ask this through Christ our Lord.
   Amen.

Related Links
• Rosary for Healing and Protection
• Praying for Unfailing Hope
• Praying Amid Scandal
• Litany for Healing
• Prayer to the Mother of Sorrows
• The Spirituality of Hope
• Healing Your Painful Memories
• More Prayers for Healing
• Prayers for People Suffering from Anxiety