With a “firm intention to proceed with measures to ensure that situations similar to those reported will not occur again,” Father Verschueren said the Jesuits will begin an internal process that “may result in disciplinary action.”

“The rite of the imposition of ashes serves as the beginning of this return journey. It exhorts us to do two things: to return to the truth about ourselves and to return to God and to our brothers and sisters.”

Cardinal O’Malley thanked the commission members and the Portuguese bishops who launched the study, but mostly the victims and survivors who came forward, many telling their stories for the first time.

There is a new willingness in the Catholic Church, modeled by Pope Francis, to hold its disagreements in fruitful tension, allowing the Spirit to show new paths forward that transcend those divisions.

The history of the church was nothing close to a steady, if interrupted, march to eliminate slavery.

In a sense, the pope’s messages all amount to the same thing: Hello and God bless you. But there is a care in the language that is striking.