penitential

Clergy would “have a duty to warn” law enforcement or social services if there is reasonable belief that a child is in imminent danger of abuse or neglect, even if that belief is informed by information obtained “in part as a result of a penitential communication,” but corroborated with information obtained outside of confession.

It also marks the beginning of the penitential Lenten season.

In the eyes of the German public, Stadler's guilty plea did not look particularly penitential.

The prayer service, known as a penitential rite and required by Canon law, was led by the basilica's archpriest, Cardinal Mauro Gambetti.

The Vatican said that the text, issued eight months after the pope’s “penitential journey to Canada,” reaffirmed the church’s “rejection of the colonizing mentality.”