Pope Francis shocking confession, to a regular priest during a public ceremony, stunned thousands of parishioners. The Roman Catholic leader, who held a confession service three weeks earlier than usual, surprised his own master of ceremonies Friday when he confessed his sins to an ordinary priest at St. Peter’s Basilica.

According to Reuters, the pope was presiding at a service intended to show the importance he attaches to the sacrament of reconciliation, also known as confession.

After reading the sermon, he was supposed to have gone to an empty confession booth to hear confessions from ordinary faithful. There were around 60 priests in the same room who were ready to receive confessions.

The Pope’s master of ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, pointed the him toward the empty booth but the pope went straight to another one, knelt before a surprised priest, and confessed to him for a few minutes.

Reuters noted that he then went back to the empty one and heard the confessions of a number of faithful. Although the pope goes to confession regularly, he does so in private.

The pope’s bold move to confess in public is one of the many things he has done as leader of the world’s Catholic faith that broke protocol and traditions. His decision to confess in front of the faithful is a departure from the past.

The picture of the pope kneeling was made available by Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano. A video showing the unexpected move by the pope was posted on YouTube by the Catholic News Service.