To My Venerable
Brother
Archbishop Rino Fisichella
President of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New Evangelization
Archbishop Rino Fisichella
President of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New Evangelization
With the approach of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy I would like to focus
on several points which I believe require attention to enable the celebration
of the Holy Year to be for all believers a true moment of encounter with the
mercy of God. It is indeed my wish that the Jubilee be a living experience of
the closeness of the Father, whose tenderness is almost tangible, so that the
faith of every believer may be strengthened and thus testimony to it be ever
more effective.
My thought first of all goes to all the faithful who, whether in individual
Dioceses or as pilgrims to Rome, will experience the grace of the Jubilee. I
wish that the Jubilee Indulgence may reach each one as a genuine experience of
God’s mercy, which comes to meet each person in the Face of the Father who
welcomes and forgives, forgetting completely the sin committed. To experience
and obtain the Indulgence, the faithful are called to make a brief pilgrimage
to the Holy Door, open in every Cathedral or in the churches designated
by the Diocesan Bishop, and in the four Papal Basilicas in Rome, as a sign of
the deep desire for true conversion. Likewise, I dispose that the Indulgence
may be obtained in the Shrines in which the Door of Mercy is open and in the
churches which traditionally are identified as Jubilee Churches. It is
important that this moment be linked, first and foremost, to the Sacrament of
Reconciliation and to the celebration of the Holy Eucharist with a reflection
on mercy. It will be necessary to accompany these celebrations with the
profession of faith and with prayer for me and for the intentions that I bear
in my heart for the good of the Church and of the entire world.
Additionally, I am thinking of those for whom, for various reasons, it will be
impossible to enter the Holy Door, particularly the sick and people who are
elderly and alone, often confined
to the home. For them it will be of great help to live their sickness and
suffering as an experience of closeness to the Lord who in the mystery of his
Passion, death and Resurrection indicates the royal road which gives meaning to
pain and loneliness. Living with faith and joyful hope this moment of trial,
receiving communion or attending Holy Mass and community prayer, even through
the various means of communication, will be for them the means of obtaining the
Jubilee Indulgence. My thoughts also turn tothose incarcerated, whose freedom is limited. The
Jubilee Year has always constituted an opportunity for great amnesty, which is
intended to include the many people who, despite deserving punishment, have
become conscious of the injustice they worked and sincerely wish to re-enter
society and make their honest contribution to it. May they all be touched in a
tangible way by the mercy of the Father who wants to be close to those who have
the greatest need of his forgiveness. They may obtain the Indulgence in the chapels
of the prisons. May the gesture of directing their thought and prayer to
the Father each time they cross the threshold of their cell signify for them
their passage through the Holy Door, because the mercy of God is able to
transform hearts, and is also able to transform bars into an experience of
freedom.
I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness
encompassed by the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. The experience of
mercy, indeed, becomes visible in the witness of concrete signs as Jesus
himself taught us. Each time that one of the faithful personally performs one
or more of these actions, he or she shall surely obtain the Jubilee Indulgence.
Hence the commitment to live by mercy so as to obtain the grace of complete and
exhaustive forgiveness by the power of the love of the Father who excludes no
one. The Jubilee Indulgence is thus full, the fruit of the very event which is
to be celebrated and experienced with faith, hope and charity.
Furthermore, the Jubilee Indulgence can also be obtained for the deceased. We
are bound to them by the witness of faith and charity that they have left us.
Thus, as we remember them in the Eucharistic celebration, thus we can, in the
great mystery of the Communion of Saints, pray for them, that the merciful Face
of the Father free them of every remnant of fault and strongly embrace them in
the unending beatitude.
One of the serious problems of our time is clearly the changed relationship
with respect to life. A widespread and insensitive mentality has led to
the loss of the proper personal and social sensitivity to welcome new life. The
tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness, as if
not realizing the extreme harm
that such an act entails. Many others, on the other hand, although experiencing
this moment as a defeat, believe they they have no other option. I think in
particular of all the women who have resorted to abortion. I am well aware of
the pressure that has led them to this decision. I know that it is an
existential and moral ordeal. I have met so many women who bear in their heart
the scar of this agonizing and painful decision. What has happened is
profoundly unjust; yet only understanding the truth of it can enable one not to
lose hope. The forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented,
especially when that person approaches the Sacrament of Confession with a
sincere heart in order to obtain reconciliation with the Father. For this
reason too, I have decided, notwithstanding anything to the contrary, to
concede to all priests for the Jubilee Year the discretion to absolve of the
sin of abortion those who have procured it and
who, with contrite heart, seek forgiveness for it. May priests fulfil this
great task by expressing words of genuine welcome combined with a reflection
that explains the gravity of the sin committed, besides indicating a path of
authentic conversion by which to obtain the true and generous forgiveness of
the Father who renews all with his presence.
A final consideration concerns those faithful who for various reasons choose to
attend churches officiated by priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X. This
Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one. From various quarters, several Brother
Bishops have told me of their good faith and sacramental practice, combined
however with an uneasy situation from the pastoral standpoint. I trust that in
the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the
priests and superiors of the Fraternity. In the meantime, motivated by the need
to respond to the good of these faithful, through my own disposition, I
establish that those who during the Holy Year of Mercy approach these
priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of
Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins.
Trusting in the intercession of the Mother of Mercy, I entrust the preparations
for this Extraordinary Jubilee Year to her protection.
From the Vatican,
1 September
2015
Franciscus
No comments:
Post a Comment