EDITORIAL/1
The Pope proclaimed the “Jubilee of Mercy”. There is no sin that cannot be forgiven. In the Church there is room for everyone
As soon as it was announced by Pope Francis it prompted interest and enthusiastic adhesions. He did it in a context of prayer, “24 hours for the Lord”, an initiative that is increasingly widespread across world ecclesial Catholic communities. We will know more about the details of the “Extraordinary Jubille of Mercy” on the first Sunday after Easter, the Sunday in Albis, renamed by John Paul II as the Sunday of Divine Mercy. We already know that it will begin December 8 this year, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, marking also the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council. We also know that the organization of this historical, universal event is entrusted to the Pontifical Council for the new evangelization. It can be noted that the intention of Pope Francis is ideally linked to the intuition of John XXIII, who initiated a breakthrough in the Church’s pastoral approach. The Pontiff wanted the works of the Council to be based on the “medicine of mercy” rather than on “severity” and rigour. This declared choice of Pope John Paul II was not dictated by a tactics of circumventing people, but by the desire to silence the voices of the “prophets of doom”, thereby showing to contemporary men and women the “validity of the doctrine rather than the renewal of condemnations”. “The Catholic Church, raising the torch of religious truth by means of this Ecumenical Council, desires to show herself to be the loving mother of all, benign, patient, full of mercy and goodness toward the brethren who are separated from her”. It is an overarching openness towards that part of humanity that Pope Francis would call “existential peripheries”. The path traced by John Paul XXIII upon the commencement of the Council, in the famous opening speech, “Gaudet Mater Ecclesia” (October 11 1962), was received by his successors and now by Pope Francis with this unexpected, gesture, the joyful announcement, welcomed as a gift of the Spirit hovering over the swirly spectacle of the world. Those distracted and superficial, who only rarely take stock of the Church’s existence, should be reminded that she continues her ancient and new pilgrimage throughout history, where, in spite of limits and pitfalls, abundantly sows faith, hope and dignity to the poor, in the flesh and in the spirit, who recover from their prostration and by the suffering caused by a feeling of abandonment and loss. The announcement of mercy is highlighted specifically by Pope Bergoglio in every homily and statement, owing to his deeply rooted personal, pastoral and theological choice. In his emblem resound the words “Miserando atque eligendo”, that describe the choice made by Jesus to Mathew. In the present historical phase, marked by intense, often violent, debates between peoples and nations, civilizations cultures and religions, and where Christians are persecuted in many areas of the world, the Church could express herself with other forms of presence and visibility in the defense of the principles and values pertaining to her doctrine, for the safeguard of her own survival in specific Countries and to impose peace with tools of pressure and power. But the deep belief in the centrality of Mercy in the Christian message is a departure from mundane temptations, thereby communicating her proposal with the name of God that is Love. Pope Francis believes that for the Church there is no other way than that of mercy. In the Church there is room for everyone, she doesn’t close her doors to anyone, there is no sin that can be forgiven, no person that cannot be saved. The Jubilee is an occasion and a tool, perceived as such, and not since today, by a diversified and distant range of people. In fact, in the deepness of the human heart there is the yearning for God’s forgiveness, for a rebirth from sin, for reconciliation with oneself and one’s brethren, a desire of a feeling of unity along the same path, directed towards a shared destination. Indulgency for the faithful is a synonym of forgiveness, without subtle distinctions, which today is totally unrelated to the sadly known quantified or monetised indulgencies. Among history’s twenty-nine Jubilees, in addition to the 26 ordinary ones, figures this extraordinary one which is comparable to the extraordinary Jubilee called by Pope Pius XI in 1933 to celebrate the 19th centenary of Redemption (considering the death and resurrection of Jesus in 33 A.D.) and with the same motivation in 1983 by John Paul II. Thus the Jubilee of Mercy takes on the features of originality, novelty and it is part and parcel of “evangelization”, always new and always part of the same eternal Gospel, source of reconciliation and peace for all human beings born in this world.
