The Pontifical Council for the Laity – Women’s Section:
“Safeguarding the Human Being, Created as Man and Woman”
http://www.laici.va/content/dam/laici/documenti/donna/Saveguarding/safeguarding-the-human-being-created-as-man-and-woman.pdf
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Jubilee of Mercy
If the Lord is calling you to go on pilgrimage to Rome during the Jubilee Year, please contact Karen Hurley at The Apostolic Lady for more information.
http://www.iubilaeummisericordiae.va/content/gdm/en.html
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Jubilee of Mercy
If the Lord is calling you to go on pilgrimage to Rome during the Jubilee Year, please contact Karen Hurley at The Apostolic Lady for more information.
http://www.iubilaeummisericordiae.va/content/gdm/en.html
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Pope Francis' Letter on the Extraordinary
Jubilee of Mercy
Vatican City, 1 September 2015 (VIS) – The Holy Father has sent
a letter to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for
Promoting New Evangelisation, regarding the extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, in
which he reaffirms his hope that the jubilee indulgence will lead every person
to a “genuine experience of God's mercy” and explains that it can also be
obtained by incarcerated persons. In addition, he grants to all priests,
notwithstanding any provision to the contrary, the faculty to absolve from sin
those who have resorted to abortion, repenting and asking forgiveness with a
sincere heart, and establishes that those who during the Holy Year of Mercy
approach the priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of
Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins. The following is the full text of the letter:
“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 to those 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 realising 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 agonising 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”.
For more information, please visit:
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