I am guilty of hypocrisy and untruthfulness in the face of force.
I have been lacking in compassion and I have denied the poorest of my brethren.
...she [the Church] has often denied to the outcast and to the despised the compassion which she owes them. She was silent when she should have cried out because the blood of the innocent was crying aloud to heaven...
She has stood by while violence and wrong were being committed under the cover of this name [Christ]...
She has incurred the guilt...of the exploitations of labour even beyond the working weekday...
The Church confesses that she has witnessed the lawless application of brutal force, the physical and spiritual suffering of countless innocent people, oppression, hatred and murder, and that she has not raised her voice on behalf of the victims and has not found ways to hasten to their aid. She is guilty of the deaths of the weakest and most defenseless brothers of Jesus Christ...
She has witnessed in silence the...corruption of the strong.
The Church confesses herself guilty towards the countless victims of calumny, denunciation and defamation.
...she has rendered herself guilty of the decline in responsible action, in bravery in the defense of the cause, and in willingness to suffer for what is known to be right.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer (Ethics, written between 1940-1943), p. 91
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