Bishop David Zubik of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh will hold a prayer service April 7 to apologize to anyone who has ever been hurt by someone acting in the name of the Catholic Church.

"If you have been harmed by the church in any way, I invite you to come. There will be nothing expected of you but your willingness to pray with me. No one will bother you," Bishop Zubik wrote in his column in the Pittsburgh Catholic. The service will be held at 7 p.m. in St. Paul Cathedral on Tuesday of Holy Week.

It is a first for the Diocese of Pittsburgh, although Bishop Zubik held a similar service in Wisconsin in 2006, when he was bishop of Green Bay.

It's not a forum where people will say aloud why they have come, but many of the reasons that people give for anger at the church will be addressed in the prayers and in his homily, Bishop Zubik said yesterday.

"It gives me a chance, as shepherd of the church during Holy Week, to say that if, in any way, any representative of the church has hurt you, I ask for your forgiveness," he said.