It's hard to say, because we know so little about what the Houses mean when they talk about sin, and what their religious frameworks for responding to sin even are.
We do get repeated discussions about what does or doesn't qualify as a sin, or a "necromantic sin" specifically, but no firm conclusions about what those sins might actually be (making a beguiling corpse? Siphoning? Making eyes at your cav outside of the niche jurisdiction of Fifth House canon law? Engineering a necromancer out of 200 infants?).
Silas seems to suggest that there's some kind of practice of confession. But given that the Eighth regard the Ninth as heretical, I can't imagine they're sending people off to do penance on the Ninth when 10 King Undyings and a donation to the Cohort Orphans and Widows Fund just won't cut it. And what is penance understood to do, spiritually, in House religion anyway?
The other question is whether they're in penance for their own specific sins, or whether there's a more general sense that the orders of the Ninth House are doing penance simply to keep the Tomb shut.
On trying to imagine it, what comes to mind is the phenomenon of people doing penance, or joining religious orders, as a response to their experience of fighting in the Crusades. With half a myriad of ongoing war, there would probably be no shortage of people for whom the Ninth might seem to offer some kind of solace.
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