WORLD : Pope Again Hears Confessions
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VATICAN CITY — Pope John Paul II donned a priest’s simple black cassock and heard the confessions of 13 pilgrims in St. Peter’s Basilica today in a Holy Week gesture he has practiced since 1980.
More than 1,000 pilgrims and tourists applauded from behind wooden barriers as the 69-year-old head of the world’s 840 million Roman Catholics slipped into the world’s largest church by a side door.
The Pope donned the cassock over his white robes before starting to hear the confessions, which lasted a total of 70 minutes.
The Pope has said he started the practice of hearing confessions each Good Friday in order to stress the importance of individual confession in an era when many Catholics, particularly in the United States, prefer to receive general indulgence of sins.
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