"Penance" refers to an act or feeling of showing regret or remorse for one's wrongdoing, often through a voluntary act of self-punishment or making amends to reconcile or seek forgiveness. Full definition
Equifax offered all its customers a year of free credit monitoring as a sort of penance for the breach, but that had its issues. (policygenius.com)
A cynic might say Singer is atoning for having penned the Julian Assange biopic The Fifth Estate; as for the director, one assumes he's not making up for the cinematic war crime of having helmed The Cobbler so much as doing penance for playing a poorly drawn journo in The Wire's final newsprint - stained season. (filmcomment.com)
To get an idea of what I mean, here are the two instances when I expressed an opinion worthy of doing penance yesterday: (rachelheldevans.com)