Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Vatican City (Agenzia Fides) - "Why a Jubilee of Mercy today? Simply because the Church, in this time of great historical change, is called to offer more evident signs of God’s presence and closeness... This is a time for the Church to rediscover the meaning of the mission entrusted to her by the Lord on the day of Easter: to be a sign and an instrument of the Father’s mercy". With these words the Holy Father explained the meaning of the special Jubilee, which will open on December 8, on the occasion of the "Misericordiae vultus" Bull of indiction of the
Jubilee, followed by the First Vespers of the Second Sunday of Easter, or of Divine Mercy, which he presided on Saturday, April 11, in the Vatican.
In addition to the Archpriest Cardinals of the papal Basilicas in Rome, who the next day presided a similar celebration in their Basilicas, the Pope delivered a copy of the Bull also to the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops (Cardinal Marc Ouellet), the Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples (Cardinal Fernando Filoni), the Prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches (Cardinal Leonardo Sandri). Even Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, born in Hong Kong and now Secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, representing the East ; Archbishop Barthélemy Adoukonou, a native of Benin and currently Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture for Africa; Mgr. Khaled Ayad Bishay, of the Patriarchal Church of Alexandria of the Copts, for the Eastern Churches, received a copy of the Bull.
"The Holy Year must keep alive the desire to know how to welcome the numerous signs of the tenderness which God offers to the whole world and, above all, to those who suffer, who are alone and abandoned, without hope of being pardoned or feeling the Father’s love – said Pope Francis Pope in the homily of Vespers -. A Holy Year to experience strongly within ourselves the joy of having been found by Jesus, the Good Shepherd who has come in search of us because we were lost... A year in which to be touched by the Lord Jesus and to be transformed by his mercy, so that we may become witnesses to mercy. Here, then, is the reason for the Jubilee: because this is the time for mercy". (SL) (Agenzia Fides 13/04/2015)
