Pope Francis Drops To His Knees and Confess at St Peter's Basilica Friday March 28,2014

Pope Francis shocked his congregation by dropping to his knees and confessing to his own sins

Pope Francis knelt before an ordinary priest in St Peter’s Basilica yesterday while presiding at a service intended to show the importance he attaches to the sacrament of reconciliation, commonly known as confession.

After reading a sermon, Pope Francis was to have gone to an empty confessional booth to hear confessions from ordinary faithful as some 60 priests scattered around the huge church did the same.

His master of ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, pointed him towards the empty booth but the pope went straight to a another one.

Pope Francis knelt before a surprised priest, and confessed to him for a few minutes.