Pope Francis hears the confession of a priest at the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome in this March 7, 2019, file photo. Photo: CNS/Vatican Media The Sacrament of Penance is an opportunity rather than just an obligation, writes Russell Shaw When Dr Bernard Nathanson died of cancer in February 2011, the obituary writers dutifully recorded that he’d become a Catholic back in 1996. Some even recalled the reason he gave for taking that step. In the 1960s and 1970s, Dr…
