To My Venerable
Brother
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 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 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
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