Vatican City, Dec 7, 2015 / 05:00 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- One of the central aims of the Jubilee of Mercy will be to reorient the Sacrament of Confession back to the center of the Church's pastoral life, explained one official involved in organizing the year-long event.   “Mercy is the tangible expression of God's love in the world,” said Fr. Geno Sylva, official for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization (PCPNE).   “By placing ourselves in situations to reflect upon this love and to experience the grace of this love in the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, (we find) the strength, the courage, and the compassion to be instruments of mercy to others.”   “I really believe that by recognizing and experiencing how incredibly patient and forgiving God is with each one of us in our imperfections and failings, we can become ever more patient and forgiving of those with whom we live, work, and interact every day,” he told CNA.   The Jubilee of Mercy is an Extraordinary Holy Year that will officially commence December 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica. It will close Nov. 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Christ the King.   The Pontifical Council is charged with putting Pope Francis' vision for the Year of Mercy into practice – both in the Vatican and abroad.   “The Holy Father wants the Jubilee of Mercy to be an opportunity to place the sacrament of God’s mercy - which is the sacrament of penance and reconciliation - into the central pastoral life for the Church,” Fr. Sylva said.   “We know that, unfortunately, Catholics don’t take advantage of the sacrament as much as they should, and so this is an opportunity for us to remind people of God’s desire to forgive us and that he’s always there to forgive us no matter the sin.”   To help emphasize the role of the Sacrament of Penance during the Jubilee, Pope Francis has called the Church to send out “Missionaries of Mercy” – priests with the faculties to pardon sins in cases otherwise reserved for the Holy See.   These priests, whom the Pope will send out on Ash Wednesday, 2016, will serve as “a visible sign of the importance of the sacrament of reconciliation in our lives of faith,” Fr. Sylva said.   “It is the responsibility of the (Pontifical Council) to select the Missionaries of Mercy,” Fr. Sylva said. He explained that many of those selected have applied to the Council, along with a letter of recommendation from the bishop showing how they “epitomize and embody” a missionary of mercy, as described in Pope Francis' Bull for the Jubilee released earlier this year.   He added that some priests selected as “Missionaries of Mercy” did not apply, but were recommended to the Pontifical Council.   Pope Francis has extended the sacrament of confession's availability to the world in other ways as well. For instance, all priests will automatically have the faculties to remit the penalty of excommunication attached to the sin of abortion, without having to receive permission from their bishops. The Pope has also granted faculties to priests of the Society of Pius X to hear confessions during the Jubilee as a step towards reconciling the traditionalist fraternity with the Holy See.   One of the characteristics of any Jubilee Year is the opening of Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, which allows those who pass through to obtain a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions. The official “Holy Doors” are only found in the four major basilicas of Rome. For the Jubilee of Mercy, however, Pope Francis has asked that the tradition of the Holy Door be available at the local level.   “The Holy Father has stressed that this Jubilee is not only to be celebrated in Rome but in all of the particular churches of the world,” Fr. Sylva said.   “This is why he has asked every bishop in the world to choose in his diocese a Holy Door, a Door of Mercy, so that all people may have a chance to make a pilgrimage through a Door of Mercy.”   “Each of the Jubilee initiatives is an invitation to bask in what Pope Francis has called the balm of God's mercy,” Fr. Geno said.   The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization is overseeing visits to the Holy Door in St. Peter's Basilica, and encourages pilgrims to register at their website.   “Because there’s going to be so many people that’ll want to get through the Holy Door, we just want to make sure that it’s really prayerful,” Fr. Sylva said. “It’s a spiritual journey of conversion that people are making, and so it’ll be reserved and people will be given enough time.”   In addition to approving “missionaries of mercy” and helping pilgrims cross through the Holy Door of St. Peter's, the Pontifical Council is also tasked with charitable initiatives worldwide.   For instance, Fr. Sylva explained, the Pope has asked the council to establish an agricultural college in Burkina Faso, West Africa, which teaches young people to provide for themselves through agriculture.   “The Holy Father would like us to leave behind, after the Jubilee of Mercy, really concrete signs of God’s mercy, he said.   The Pope first announced the Year of Mercy on March 13, the second anniversary of his pontifical election, during a Lenten penitential liturgy in St. Peter’s Basilica.   On April 11, the Holy Father officially proclaimed the Jubilee Year with the release of the Bull of Indiction.   Mercy is a theme that is dear to Pope Francis, and is the central topic of his episcopal motto “miserando atque eligendo,” which he chose when ordained a bishop in 1992.   Read more

Vatican City, Dec 6, 2015 / 09:03 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In his Angelus address for the second Sunday of Advent, Pope Francis spoke against the presumption that the need for conversion applies only to non-believers, and that Christians are somehow exempt. “No one can say: 'I am holy, I am perfect, I am already saved',” the Pope said Dec. 6 to the crowds in St. Peter's Square. “No. We must always welcome this offer of salvation.” Stressing that salvation is offered to everyone, the pontiff explained that this is the reason for the Year of Mercy: “to go ever forward along this path of salvation, that path which Jesus taught us. God wants all men to be saved through Jesus Christ, the only Mediator.” “It is a pressing invitation to open our hearts and welcome the salvation which God incessantly, almost stubbornly, offers us, because he wants us to be freed from the slavery of sin,” the Pope said. The Jubilee of Mercy is an Extraordinary Holy Year that will open this year on Dec. 8 – the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception – and will close Nov. 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Christ the King. Speaking two days ahead of the official start of the Jubilee of Mercy, the pontiff centered his pre-Angelus address on the theme of conversion, as shown in Gospel reading from the second Sunday of Advent in which John the Baptist proclaimed a “baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Luke 3: 3). He challenged Christians to examine whether their sentiments are in line with those of Jesus'. For instance, in the face of wrongdoing, “are we able to react without animosity, and forgive from the heart he who asks forgiveness?” the Pope asked, stressing how difficult forgiveness can be. “When we must share joy or sorrow, do we know how to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice? When we must express our faith, do we know how to do so with courage and simplicity, without being ashamed of the Gospel?” John the Baptist's words ring true in modern “deserts of humanity,” which are closed minds and hardened hearts, the Pope said, adding that the words of Isaiah cited in Sunday's Gospel to “prepare the way of the Lord” are relevant today. We are therefore called “to make Jesus known to those who still do not know him,” the Pope said. However, this is done by opening “a door,” rather than by proselytizing. He explained that this door is opened by the conviction shown by Christians who are truly in love with Jesus, and challenged the faithful as to whether they have this love and conviction. “If the Lord Jesus has changed our life, and if there is change every time we go to Him, how can we not be passionate about making him known to everyone we meet at work, school, in our apartment building, in hospital, in places we find ourselves?” “However, we must be brave: lower the mountains of pride and rivalry, refill the gullies dug up by indifference and apathy, straighten the path of our laziness and our compromises.” Before leading those present in the Marian Angelus prayer, Pope Francis called on Mary's intercession to break down the “barriers and obstacles which impede our conversion” thereby allowing for our encounter with Jesus, who alone can give fulfillment to “all the hopes of man!” After leading the crowds in St. Peter's Square in the Angelus, Pope Francis acknowledged the climate summit currently underway in Paris. Referencing his encyclical on the environment, “Laudato, Si,” the Pope said: “For the sake of the common home of all of us and future generations, every effort in Paris should be aimed at mitigating the impacts of climate change,” while at the same time combating poverty in order to help human dignity to thrive. The fight against climate change and the fight against poverty go together, the pontiff said. “Let us pray that the Holy Spirit enlighten all who are called to take such important decisions and give them the courage to keep as a criterion of choice for the greater good of the whole human family.” Pope Francis also remarked on the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council's Joint Declaration between Blessed Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras, which took place on Dec. 7, 1965 on the eve of the council's conclusion. The Joint Declaration is considered a major step in promoting reconciliation between the Holy See and the ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople after the Great Schism of 1054. The Pope said it is “providential” that this “historic gesture of reconciliation” is remembered at the opening of the Year of Mercy. He asked for prayers for current ecumenical patriarch Bartholomew I, and said for there to be an “authentic journey toward God” there is the need to “to ask forgiveness from God and from one another for the sins of division.” “We ask the Lord that relations between Catholics and Orthodox be always inspired by fraternal love.” Read more

Vatican City, Dec 5, 2015 / 08:13 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The Vatican has announced Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI will take part in the official inauguration of the Jubilee of Mercy with the opening of the Holy Door on Dec. 8. The retired pontiff “ac... Read more

Vatican City, Dec 4, 2015 / 04:51 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Preacher of the Pontifical Household’s first sermon for the Advent season was a striking reminder of the Christian’s need to love Christ and to see the Church as his body and spouse. “Let us seek to love Christ and to make him loved, and we will have rendered our best service to the Church,” Father Raniero Cantalamessa, O.F.M. Cap. said Dec. 4. He was preaching to Pope Francis and a congregation largely composed of clergy at the Redemptoris Mater chapel of the Vatican's Apostolic Palace. “If the Church is the spouse of Christ, then like every spouse she will generate new children only in uniting herself to her Spouse through love. The fruitfulness of the Church depends on her love for Christ. The best service anyone of us can do for the Church is therefore to love Jesus and grow in intimacy with him.” The papal preacher also reminded the congregation of the logic of Christian belief. “People do not accept Christ because of love for the Church but they accept the Church because of love for Christ, even a Church disfigured by the sin of its many representatives,” he said. “What does it mean to have a personal encounter with Jesus? he asked. “It means saying, ‘Jesus is Lord!’, the way that Paul and the early Christians said it, which determines a person’s whole life forever because of it.” Father Cantalamessa reflected that “when this happens Jesus is no longer a personage but a person. He is no longer someone who is only talked about but someone to whom and with whom we can speak because he is risen and alive; he is no longer just a memory, although alive and operative liturgically, but an actual presence. It also means not making any important decisions without having submitted them to him in prayer.” The priest cited Pope Francis’ invitation to Christians to seek “a renewed personal encounter with Jesus Christ,” as the Pope had said in his 2013 apostolic exhortation Evangelii gaudium. The papal preacher considered the phrase “personal encounter,” which he said has “a vaguely Protestant resonance to our Catholic ears.” However, he made clear that the personal encounter with Christ does not substitute for the sacramental encounter. Rather, the encounter with Christ makes the sacraments “a freely chosen and welcome encounter” instead of a nominal or “habitually routine” one. Fr. Cantalamessa has planned his Advent homilies for the Pope to focus on four major documents of the Second Vatican Council. On Friday he focused on Lumen gentium, the dogmatic constitution on the Church. Discussion of the documents of the Second Vatican Council has been perennial since the council closed 50 years ago, he said. In his view, the discussion has focused on their doctrinal and pastoral applications, but very little on their spiritual content. He said all of the Second Vatican Council draws from Christ as the light of nations, the “Lumen gentium.” This is the key to the council’s Christ-centered vision for the Church. This vision is “spiritual and mystical before being social and institutional.” The restoration of this vision would make for a more effective evangelization, he argued. Father Cantalamessa confessed that he had previously misunderstood Lumen gentium because he had assumed its first words referred to the Church, not to Christ. He reflected that the true focus of this document is explained in the works of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, the theologian who later became Benedict XVI. Father Cantalamessa suggested that most commentary on the council “focused more on the communion of the Church’s members with each other than on the communion of all its members with Christ.” He reflected on how Lumen gentium presents the Church as “our mother” and “the spotless spouse of the spotless Lamb.” Christ unites himself to the Church “by an unbreakable alliance” and nourishes and cherishes it. “It is the Church which, once purified, he willed to be joined to himself, subject in love and fidelity,” the dogmatic constitution says. Father Cantalamessa said “the Church is the body of Christ because she is the spouse of Christ!” The papal preacher also credited Ratzinger for highlighting the intrinsic relationship between these two images. St. Paul’s image of the Church as the Body of Christ is not primarily based on his metaphor of the human body having many parts. Rather, it is based on “the spousal idea of the one flesh that a man and a woman form when they join themselves in marriage” and even more on “the Eucharistic idea of the one body that is formed by those who partake of the same bread.” “Without the Church and without the Eucharist, Christ would not have a ‘body’ in the world,” Father Cantalamessa reflected. He noted the Church Fathers’ theological dictum that what can be said about the Church can be applied, with necessary distinctions, to “each person in particular in the Church.” “If the Church in its innermost and truest meaning is the body of Christ, then I actualize the Church in myself, I am an ‘ecclesial being,’ to the extent that I allow Christ to make me his body, not just in theory but also in practice,” he said. “What counts is not the position I occupy in the Church but the position that Christ occupies in my heart!” This actualization takes place through the sacraments, especially Baptism and the Eucharist. The saying “the Eucharist makes the Church” applies on both the community and personal level. Through the Eucharist, “two lives, mine and Christ’s, become one ‘without confusion and without division’” in a real, mystic way. Father Cantalamessa again noted that the image of the Church as the body of Christ is linked to the image of the Church as the spouse of Christ. “According to St. Paul, the immediate consequence of marriage is that the body of the husband now belongs to the wife and, conversely, the body of the wife belongs to the husband.” The preacher then applied this to the Christian’s life. “There is nothing in my life that does not belong to Christ. No one should say, ‘Oh, Jesus does not know what it means to be married, to be a woman, to have lost a son, to be sick, to be elderly, or to be a person of color!’ If you experience something, he experiences it too, thanks to you and through you,” the papal preacher said. “Whatever Christ himself was not able to experience ‘in the flesh’ – since his earthly existence, like everyone else’s, was limited to certain experiences – is now lived and ‘experienced’ by the Risen One ‘in the Spirit’ thanks to the spousal communion at Mass.”   “What an inexhaustible reason for amazement and comfort at the thought that our humanity becomes Christ’s humanity!” he exclaimed. “However, what responsibility comes along with all this! If my eyes have become Christ’s eyes and my mouth has become Christ’s mouth, what a reason not to allow my gaze to indulge in lustful images, or allow my tongue to speak against a brother, or allow my body to serve as an instrument of sin!” “One can only shudder at the thought of the terrible damage that is done to the body of Christ that is the Church,” the papal preacher said. Father Cantalamessa said his upcoming homilies will draw on the Second Vatican Council's constitutions Sacrosanctum Concilium, on the sacred liturgy; Dei verbum, on divine revelation; and Gaudium et spes, on the Church in the modern world.  Correction: A previous version of this story erroneously identified Father Cantalamessa as a Dominican. He is a Capuchin Franciscan.   #PopeFrancis hears Father Cantalamessa's first sermon of #Advent at the Chapel of Redemptoris Mater, Apostolic Palace on December 4. #Rome #Catholic Photo: L'Osservatore Romano A photo posted by Catholic News Agency (@catholicnewsagency) on Dec 4, 2015 at 10:03am PST Read more