End of Jubilee
For the Catholic Church in Russia, a national congress on mercy will mark the end of this jubilee year. It will take place in Marks from 17th to 20th November and will be called “Announcing God’s mercy, the throbbing heart of the Gospel”. The first part will be spent on the “experience of mercy”: after an introduction about “Yahweh, God of mercy in the faith of the Old Testament” and about St Doctor Haas, “witness of mercy on Russian land”, work will go on in groups, opened by the experience of the Russian “missionaries of mercy”. The second part will be about “the imagination of mercy”: a reflection on “Jesus Christ, the face of the Father’s mercy” will be followed by a speech of the John XXII Community: “mercy is not an abstract word, but a way of life”. Groups will reflect according to “the school of Mary, Mother of Mercy” on what it means to have “imagination in mercy” today. “We expect 60 people to come from Kaliningrad to Yakutsk. The new nuncio, monsignor Celestino Migliore, archbishop Pezzi from Moscow and bishop Klimovicz from Irkutsk will come too”, the host bishop, mgr. Clemens Pickel of Saratov, told SIR. The programme will be completed by “moments for liturgies and sharing”. “In Marks, there is the first new Catholic Church built in Russia since 1917. It was consecrated in November 1993 and dedicated to Christ the King”, explains mgr. Pickel, a day that all of the Church will be celebrating on Sunday 20th November.
