One of the consequences of heresy, and naturally of all sin, is the disruption of communion within the Church: our individual communion with God and our communion with each other. Dominican preaching, like all preaching, aims to restore this communion. But what has been unique to the Dominican’s work is that our preaching has been from the beginning associated with the sacrament of penance and reconciliation.

We were given a special mission to preach in all places by the Church, and we were also given a special responsibility to restore people to full communion in the Mystical Body of Christ. This tradition still  exists whereby Dominicans have special permission to absolve certain sins which an ordinary diocesan priest cannot usually absolve without recourse to his bishop.