Jubilee: mercy is for everyone

“Prison as the Holy Door, because the Jubilee has always constituted an opportunity of a “great amnesty”. The scars of women who aborted are an opportunity for rebirth, because “the forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented”. These are the highlights of the letter sent by Pope Francis, three months before the opening of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, to monsignor Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization. Full “plenary Indulgency is also granted in the spiritual and corporal works of mercy, and to those who will “approach the priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation”, while awaiting to recover “full communion”, as this “Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one”. Even the dead – who may obtain indulgence through our prayers -, the sick and people who are elderly and alone. Pope Francis said he wishes that the Jubilee may be “a living experience of the closeness of the Father, whose tenderness is almost tangible”. Indulgence is “tenderness”. “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”, the Pope writes in the Letter. “To experience and obtain Indulgence the faithful are called to undertake 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 well as “in the Shrines in which the Door of Mercy is open and in the churches which traditionally are identified as Jubilee Churches”. For Francis “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”. A “great amnesty” for those in prison. For the sick and people who are elderly and alone, who are unable to go to the Holy Door “it will be of great help to live their sickness and suffering as an experience of closeness to the Lord” and obtain indulgence through the media. The thought of the Pope then goes 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”. The unprecedented initiative of the Pope, who on the occasion of the Jubilee for the first time summoned the convicts in St. Peter’s Square for a celebration dedicated to them, is contained in these words: “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”. “Full” indulgence also for works of mercy. “I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover the richness encompassed by the spiritual and corporal works of mercy”, underlines the Pope on the wake of the Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy: “Each time that one of the faithful personally performs one or more of these actions, he or she shall surely obtain the Jubilee Indulgence”. Priests may absolve from the “sin of abortion”. “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”. This is the most significant novelty contained in the Letter. “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”, is the teaching of the Pope, for whom “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 have no other option”. “I think in particular of all the women who have resorted to abortion”, the Pope writes turning to the female realm, but in no abstract terms: “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”, the Pope said, motivating his disposition.