In a 40-minute question and answer session, the Pope speaks to web and news directors Paolo Ruffini and Lucio Brunelli, about his reflections on the fruits of the Extraordinary Holy Year, which he describes as "a blessing from the Lord", on the changes the Church needs to undergo, on the idolatry of money and attention towards the poor.

A brief preview of the interview was aired after the special reports on the ceremony for the closing of the Holy Door.

The "blessing" of the Jubilee
"I can only report the news that's been coming from all around the world. The fact that the Jubilee was not just celebrated in Rome but in very diocese in the world, in the cathedrals and churches the bishop had indicated, universalised the Jubilee a bit. And it did a great deal of good.

Because the whole Church experienced this Jubilee, there was a Jubilee atmosphere. The diocese have reported people approaching the Church again and encountering Jesus: it was a blessing from the Lord (...) It is an ecclesial line where mercy is, I wouldn't say discovered because it has always been there, but strongly proclaimed: it is like a need.

A need that is good in a world afflicted by the illness of a throwaway culture, the illness of a closed heart, of selfishness. Because it opened up people's hearts and many people were able to encounter Jesus."

"Mercy Fridays", exploited girls
"I visited girls who had been rescued from prostitution. I remember one African girl, she was beautiful, very young and had been exploited - she was pregnant - beaten and tortured: 'You must go and work', she was told... And as she recounted her story - there were 15 girls there each of whom shared their stories with me - she said to me: "Father, I gave birth in the winter, in the street. Alone. On my own. My baby girl died."

They had forced her to work up until that day because if she didn't make her exploiters a lot of money she was beaten and even tortured.

Another girl had had her ear cut off... And I thought not only about the exploiters but also those who pay the girls: don't these people know that their moment of sexual satisfaction means their money is going towards helping the exploiters?" Continue reading

Sources

• Vatican Insider
• Image: Confrontations

But they are not closing their holy door:

"Here in the Archdiocese our glass Doors of Mercy, will in fact, remain open. These doors will continue to remind all who enter the Cathedral that the Lord desires the doors to God's mercy to be thrown wide open, enabling all peoples to come to God, to return to God, to experience God's healing mercy!"

"Special cards to recall the Year of Mercy are being distributed this coming weekend to all families in the Archdiocese. It is a reminder that "the Doors of Mercy are always open."

The visit marked the end of the Jubilee Holy Year of Mercy.

In an interview last December, Francis said the Holy Year is a response to the world's need for a "revolution of tenderness" from which "justice and all the rest derives."

"We are used to bad news, cruel news, and to even bigger atrocities, which offend the name and life of God."

Ending those tragedies requires a spirit of mercy, he said.

The seven former priests included a Spaniard and a Latin American as well as five Italians.

The Vatican said all seven had struggled with their eventual decision to leave the priesthood.

The Vatican statement also said "The Holy Father's visit was highly appreciated by all those present who did not hear the Pope make a judgment on their choice, but felt his closeness and affection."

Francis listened to each of the former priests' stories, and was able to show them he was aware of each of their particular situations.

"His paternal word has reassured everyone on his friendship and the certainty of his personal interest," the Vatican statement ended.

"In this way, again, Pope Francis wanted to give a sign of mercy to those who live a situation of spiritual and material distress ...".

The visit was one of the Pope's last acts of mercy during the Holy Year. Each month during the past 12 months, Francis has undertaken a special act of mercy.

He has visited refugees and elderly people, for example, and hosted and apologised to thousands of for any possible hurts he may have inflicted on them.

Source

• Zenit
• RNS Religion News Service
• Crux
• Image: Catholic Herald

At the closing mass held at Holy Family Primary School parishioners were reminded about the importance of looking out for those in need in their communities.

Parishioners traveled from seven parishes in the North, including Taveuni and Bua.

Last Sunday, in the Western Division, Catholics gathered in Lautoka. The celebration began with a Eucharistic procession from Shirley Park to the Church.

Then there was a open-air mass in the grounds of St Thomas Primary School.

Father Veremo Doverua was the presiding celebrant. All the priests in the division concelebrated.

Members of the Lautoka parish provided a meal for those from the visiting parishes. Each each community had been allotted a different task for preparing the food.

The Year of Mercy began when Pope Francis opened the Holy Door at St Peter's Basilica on December 8 last year.

Holy doors where opened in Cathedrals and designated churches throughout the world.

In Fiji, Archbishop Peter Chong opened the doors of mercy of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Suva on the eve of the third Sunday of Advent.

Three basilicas in Rome - St. Paul Outside the Walls, St. John Lateran and St. Mary Major - were closed during special Masses held Nov. 13.

The Holy Doors at churches and basilicas around the world are also closing the same day.

The year will officially end on Nov. 20, the Solemnity of Christ the King, when Pope Francis will close the Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica. It was opened on Dec. 8, 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception.

Source

• fijisun.com.fj
• fijitimes.com
• catholicnewsagency.com
• Image: fijisun.com.fj

The cards are a revision of the cards produced in 2009 which invite the recipients to pray for particular individuals who are currently in prison. There was a great response from parishioners and many prisoners were moved to think that they were being prayed for specifically.

The new edition cards will be given out on the weekend of the 6th of November along with some suggested prayers of the faithful to be included in the Masses that day.
Parishioners are encouraged to pray for all those in prison, their families, the victims of their crime, and those who minister or work with prisoners.

Let us pray:
Let us pray: For all who are in prison, breathe new life into their hearts, support them in their pain and loneliness give them the courage and fortitude to strive for a transformed life upon release.For the families of those in prison who are living their own sentence of worry, loneliness and isolation, and caring for children. May they know your loving support For all who work with people in prison that they may carry out their duties with sensitivity, understanding and compassion. For all chaplains and volunteers who minister in prison: may they see your face in all they meet, be quick to console and slow to judge and thus carry a message of mercy, hope and forgiveness Bless those who minister in prisons: may they always reflect the love of Christ to all in need. For our communities, that we may always be welcoming and hospitable communities supportive of those starting new lives.

A prayer card will also be distributed to prisoners through the Prison Chaplaincy Service.

For more information please contact, Simone Olsen, Communications Adviser, 021 611 052

This year's album includes pieces by Palestrina that focus on mercy in honor of the Jubilee.

Created in partnership with the classical music label Deutsche Grammophon, the second album was released last week.

It is called "Palestrina: Missa Papae Marcelli/Motets." Read more

"We have asked people to 'be an act of mercy' and they have responded with great generosity for those who can't afford to put shoes and socks onto children's feet.

"My sincere thanks goes to all those who have donated them," Dew said.

The shoes and socks will be taken to schools throughout the archdiocese area, which runs from the Wairarapa to Levin and as far south as Kaikoura and the West Coast.

The footwear will not only go to Catholic schools, but to all low decile schools.

Paul Alsford, from the Wellington archdiocesan Year of Mercy committee said the shoes and socks are an example of "practical mercy" and are a "wonderful response to an awareness of people in need, especially children."

Although the Pope has designated 2016 to be a "Year of Mercy" Alsford would like the footwear initiative to be ongoing.

"It's a corporal work of mercy [to ensure people have suitable clothing] and it's wonderful to see how much people want to help others. We're very aware that while bellies that need to be filled, warm, dry feet are are also essential."

Mike Driscoll, from the St Vincent de Paul (Vinnies) Hutt Valley Area Council, says shoes will be delivered to schools by Vinnies conferences throughout the archdiocese.

• Souce: Supplied
• Image: Supplied

"I believe," he added, that "empathy is the most essential quality of civilization."

Empathy is, indeed, foundational not only to civilization, but to any sort of community or society, to any knowledge of others, and even — according to Saint Edith Stein, whose doctoral dissertation was on empathy — to true knowledge of oneself.

Empathy is not identical to mercy, but the two are fundamentally linked (a reality noted more than once by Pope Francis during this Jubilee Year of Mercy, now about half over.)

Empathy alone will not make us merciful, but we cannot be merciful without empathy. Without that habit of stepping outside our own personal box of time and space and putting ourselves imaginatively in the place of others, including those whose lives and experiences are very different from our own, we will not respond with mercy to their needs or weakness.

If movies can invite us to empathy, they can also invite us to mercy. Of course some movies do the opposite, just as some movies, far from promoting empathy, reinforce tribalisms and prejudices of all kinds. Among the most enduring Hollywood genres, after all, is the revenge story, which is the antithesis of mercy.

Which brings me to the newly released Arts & Faith Top 25 Films on Mercy.

Each year the diverse community of film lovers and film writers at Arts & Faith — of which I am a longtime participant and voting member — releases a new Top 25 list with a unique theme. Past topics include memory, marriage, comedy, horror, and road films. Continue reading

• Steven D. Greydanus has been writing about film since 2000. He is the creator of DecentFilms.com, and his work appears in the National Catholic Register, Catholic Digest, and the New Catholic Encyclopedia.

In the Diocese of Gizo in the Solomon Islands the isolation and remoteness of parishes from the diocesan centre makes it virtually impossible for the people living in the villages to come to the Holy Door at the cathedral.

So the pastoral team of the diocese, led by Bishop Luciano Capelli, thought of a mobile Holy Door.

In two months, the Holy Door has gone to the most remote islands and villages of the diocese. Its pilgrimage ended on May 9th.

In each of the 14 stations visited there was a level of participation in the liturgy never seen before.

The programme was carried out in almost the same way in every village.

The Warriors of the village officially welcomed the Holy Door.

This was followed by a liturgy over a period of three days to present the meaning of the Jubilee.

It included a prayer vigil in preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation, and then a dialogue of reconciliation between people and groups in conflict.

"The priests were surprised by the participation and goodwill experienced in a real climate of mercy," said Capelli.

"It is beautiful when people are able to forgive and start afresh... mistakes and conflicts can become moments of encounter and growth if approached with an open heart, with faith and generosity."

Source

• wantokniuspepa.com
• Image: infoans.org

It was miraculous. Every time it happened, I would be startled and the child would be delighted and amazed. It was as if, after all that hard work, we both were bewildered that it had actually happened.

Most of you probably don't know that early on in my blogging efforts, there was a bit of controversy.

In one of my first blog posts, I wrote about how I began my journey back into the Catholic Church by attending Mass as an atheist, and I admitted that I received Communion in an unworthy state for almost a year.

Finally, it dawned on me in one wonderful moment that I should go to Confession.

I wrote about this to help illustrate the value of graduality in the spiritual life. Not graduality of the law, but graduality in the comprehension of the law. This is a reality in all of our lives.

We do not come to an understanding of God's law simply by reading the sounds of the black and white text. It takes a whole lifetime for us to comprehend spiritual things in a way that goes beyond intellectual comprehension and really sinks deep into our hearts.

A perfect example of this is Jesus' command: "Love your enemies" (Mt 5:44). How many of us find that one difficult? How many of us can really say we understand that? But there are moments in time that help us to move further along in understanding how the Divine behaves and how we can behave in union with Him.

You've likely heard that Lady Gaga posted something recently about going to Mass, and how she appreciated a line from the priest's homily: "The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect but the food that God gives us."

Little did she probably know, but that priest was riffing off a passage from the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, and this line of thought is originally from the early Church Fathers who often likened the Eucharist to a medicine for sinners. Continue reading

• Sister Theresa Aletheia Noble, FSP, is the author of The Prodigal You Love: Inviting Loved Ones Back to the Church. She recently pronounced her first vows with the Daughters of Saint Paul.

It was a joint initiative of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Committee for Interfaith Relations and the Wellington Abrahamic Council of Jews, Christians and Muslims.

The first part of the event was a panel presentation by three speakers.

JoEllen Dukkor (Jewish), Sister Elizabeth Julian (Christian) and Sultan Eusoff (Muslim) spoke about God's mercy in their respective scriptures.

During the evening, participants worked on a mosaic of mercy with key quotes from the scriptures and literature, punctuated with pictures illustrating the works of mercy.

"However, the works of mercy are a call to action," explains Sister Catherine Jones, Chair of the Bishops Committee, "so the reflective evening was followed by a day of action on Saturday 21 May."

This part of the event included collection and preparation of hygiene kits and toiletries for the Wellington Night Shelter and the Wellington Homeless Women's Trust, baking some sweet treats for the Compassion Centre Soup Kitchen, and a visit to the patients and residents at Te Hopai Hospital and Rest Home.

Outdoor activities "to care for our common home" were curtailed because of bad weather, but some braved the elements to work in the Taputeranga Marae gardens.

The Year of Mercy is celebrated in many ways, and in particular in this encounter with people of other faiths, working together in service of those most in need.

Source

Supplied

Further information from Sr Catherine Jones, smsm

The arrests were made in Lombardy and Piedmont late last month.

They came as the result of a joint operation co-ordinated by Milan's district attorney and the Italian anti-terror agency.

Authorities monitored a series of conversations between the suspects via WhatsApp.

One of the messages sent to a suspect stated: "Dear brother Abderrahim, I send you . . . the bomb poem . . . listen to the sheik and strike," ANSA reported.

This message was received by Abderrahim Moutaharrik, one of those arrested.

Milan prosecutor Maurizio Romanelli told reporters that authorities believe the word "sheik" is a reference to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

He also said the messages, intercepted in February and March, mentioned a strike against the Israeli embassy as well as against pilgrims in Rome for the Year of Mercy.

Mr Romanelli told ANSA: "This is a new profile, because it was not a generic indication, but an indication given to a specific person who was invited to act within the territory of the Italian state."

"I swear I will be the first to attack them in this Italy of crusaders, I swear I'll attack it, in the Vatican God willing," a message from one of the arrested suspects stated, according to ANSA.

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi, SJ, expressed his confidence in the current security measures in place for the Holy Year.

Several of those arrested had Moroccan links.

In all, four suspects were arrested, with warrants issued for two more.

Sources

• Catholic News Service
• JP Updates
• Image: Catholic Herald

In chapter 4, "Love in Marriage," the Holy Father offers a moving exegesis of that popular wedding reading, St. Paul's ode to love from 2 Corinthians.

It's about more than marriage, though; it's mercy in action.

The love that St. Paul celebrates as the greatest and most enduring virtue is intended to be the pattern for every human relationship.

That's why Pope Francis's reflections (in paragraphs 112-113 of Amoris Laetitia) on the phrase "[Love] bears all things" blew me away.

First, Paul says that love "bears all things" (panta stégei). This is about more than simply putting up with evil; it has to do with the use of the tongue. The verb can mean "holding one's peace" about what may be wrong with another person. … In seeking to uphold God's law we must never forget this specific requirement of love. (AL #112, emphasis original)

This week's Jubilee Year suggestion for practicing mercy (#17) is, then, not just an optional nice thing to do but a "specific requirement of love": Hold. Your. Tongue.

Far more often than I want to admit, the merciful thing, the loving thing to do is to hush.

It's not a new notion. The Letter of James pulls no punches about the destructive power of unmerciful speech among the first Christians.

Consider how small a fire can set a huge forest ablaze. The tongue is also a fire. It exists among our members as a world of malice, defiling the whole body and setting the entire course of our lives on fire, itself set on fire by Gehenna. (James 3:5-6)

Today we would amend James's description to include the typing fingers and the texting thumbs, equally susceptible to Hell's arson and equally setting lives on fire with malice.

Here, then, are just of few of the many situations in which I need to practice mercy by holding my tongue — and atoning for the times I have not. Continue reading

• Joanne McPortland is a freelance writer who has a special interest in the interplay between Catholicism and culture.

Last September, Francis decreed that during the Holy Year of Mercy, anyone who confesses their sins to an SSPX priest will be considered validly forgiven.

Now, SSPX superior Bishop Bernard Fellay has said Francis told him during a recent meeting that he wants to extend this authorisation.

A private meeting took place between the Francis and Bishop Fellay on April 1 at the Pope's personal residence at the Vatican.

In a homily at a Mass in France, Bishop Fellay also shared that Francis had said he'd never condemn the society, and that in his eyes, they were "part of the Church".

In the April 10 homily, Bishop Fellay expressed "happiness" over his encounter with Francis.

"You are Catholics, you're not excommunicated, and we must continue to work towards full communion", is what the bishop claims the Pope told him.

The canonical status of the SSPX was not addressed during the meeting between Pope Francis and Bishop Fellay.

But both reportedly determined that the exchanges between them have to continue "without haste".

In the homily, Bishop Fellay also spoke of Francis's recent apostolic exhortation on the family, Amoris Laetitia.

The bishop says the document "makes us cry", adding that its stance on access to the sacraments for divorced and civilly remarried couples makes this a "terrible document which harms the Church".

Talks between the Vatican and the SSPX have been ongoing since 2000, so far with no success.

Last year, Cardinal Mario Poli, handpicked by Francis as his successor in Buenos Aires, helped the society earn recognition as a juridical person.

Sources

• Crux Now
• Image: Catholic Herald

To assess the success of a pope, you have to first identify the major reform he seeks, and then ask how far he has achieved it.

For St. John Paul II, it was "Evangelical Catholicism". After a decade of turbulence and disagreement, he wanted the Church to be more faithful to its traditions and to be braver and more energetic in its proclamation.

Pope Benedict XVI's big idea was the New Evangelization. Faced with the dictatorship of relativism, he sought a Church that could better express the clarity, coherence and power of its teaching in ways credible to the modern mind.

For Francis - and the Latin-American Church as a whole - the plan is ‘Pastoral Conversion'. He wants the Church to be closer to people in the reality of their daily lives, to be simpler, poorer and more accessible, and better able to communicate God's merciful love.

It is the plan laid out in his November 2013 exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, and in barnstorming speeches in Florence, at the close of last year's synod, and recently in Mexico City.

Along with his teaching documents, each pope also has a privileged mechanism for bringing about that conversion.

For John Paul II, it was traveling and visibility on a global scale. For Benedict XVI, it was the synod for the New Evangelization and the Vatican office he created to implement it.

For Francis, it is the synod on the family (leading to its fruit, the forthcoming exhortation "Amoris Laetitia" ) and the Jubilee of Mercy.

Now that we are close to what is probably the halfway point of the Francis' papacy, it is time to ask: How far has the Church been "pastorally converted"?

On one level, of course, it's way too early to say. But there are three indications the strategy is making its mark. Continue reading

• Austen Ivereigh is a writer, journalist, broadcaster, and author of The Great Reformer: Francis and the Making of a Radical Pope (now out in Picador paperback, with a new, updated epilogue).

In fact, the 400-year-old canvas, an altarpiece in a Naples church titled "The Seven Acts of Mercy," may represent the perfect combination of the man — or, rather, two men — and the moment: a brilliant painter with a scurrilous reputation who was striving for redemption, and a popular pontiff struggling to make the church more welcoming to outcasts.

"A dramatic convergence has taken place between Pope Francis' teachings and Caravaggio's message," writes Terence Ward in his new book on the painting, titled "The Guardian of Mercy."

Even Ward's book represents a stroke of providence in that he started it years ago after wandering into the church where the painting has hung for centuries, only to have his laptop with the first manuscript stolen.

The delay meant that the publication of Ward's book coincided with the pope's Jubilee Year of Mercy, and a revolutionary pontificate that would seem to dovetail so easily with Caravaggio's boundary-pushing style.

The confluence of developments is also no small irony, and perhaps some posthumous vindication, for an artist who died while desperately seeking mercy from another pope, of an entirely different cast, in an entirely different era.

Michelangelo Merisi was born in 1571 in northern Italy and grew up in the town of Caravaggio — hence his later moniker. He was orphaned at 11, just as he began an apprenticeship in an artist's workshop. He was known as a hothead early on, however, and had to leave Milan for Rome around 1590, reportedly after getting in trouble for wounding a police officer in a street fight. Continue reading

Sources

• David Gibson, writing in Crux. David Gibson is a national reporter for Religion News Service.
• Image: Wikipedia

During his weekly blessing on Sunday, Pope Francis reinforced his message of mercy by telling the faithful about the Biblical story of the adulterous woman whom Jesus refused to condemn.

"This woman represents all of us, adulterers before God, traitors of his trust. And her experience represents the will of God for all of us: Not our condemnation, but our salvation through Jesus," the pope said.

Pope Francis began his papacy in 2013 by stressing a mercy-over-morals message.

A report by Reuters, however, said three years after the election of Pope Francis, Catholic conservatives worry that "behind the gentle facade lies a dangerous reformer who is diluting Catholic teaching on moral issues like homosexuality and divorce."

The report said conservatives are also worried about the pope's drive to devolve decision-making power on several issues from the Vatican to regional, national or diocesan levels, in has been called "a healthy decentralization."

US Secretary of State John Kerry, meanwhile, thanked Pope Francis for his role in renewing the country's diplomatic ties with Cuba.

"The Holy Father was instrumental in encouraging talks between our two countries, and the United States will continue to seek his support as we proceed with our renewed bilateral relationship with Cuba," Kerry said in a statement quoted by Vatican Radio.

Sources

Reuters
AP/NBC News
Fox News Latino
Vatican Radio
Image: Fox News Latino

Another half a million died there from disease and starvation. A year after his tenure came to an end, he returned to oversee the execution of 400,000 Hungarian Jews.

And yet even an "animal" such as he was not beyond the reach of God's mercy.

My wife and I learned about Höss when a young nun from Poland came to speak at our church this week. I was taken aback when I first heard the telling, in part because I thought Sister Gaudia was speaking of Rudolf Hess, the deputy to Adolf Hilter.

The names sound similar. But what happened to Höss, who held a less prominent position in the Third Reich, was perhaps more stunning.

The lecture was part of the parish's observance of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, declared by Pope Francis.

Sister Gaudia and Sister Emmanuela, members of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Mercy — the congregation to which St. Faustina Kowalska belonged — are touring the United States, speaking about Christ's revelations to St. Faustina and the image and devotion of the Divine Mercy.

Sister Gaudia, by the way, is part of the planning committee for World Youth Day 2016, which will take place in Krakow this summer.

Seventy or so years ago, Krakow, and all of Poland, was a very different place than it is today. Sister Gaudia spoke of Auschwitz, one of the Nazis' deadliest camps, with its extensive use of gas chambers and medical experimentation, set right in the heart of her country. One in six Jews killed in the Holocaust died there.

But the camp was not only for Jews. Catholics, such as Saints Maximilian Kolbe and Benedicta of the Cross (Edith Stein), were here as well. Continue reading

Sources

• Aleteia, from an article by news editor John Burger.
• Image: Express UK

Speaking at St Peter's Square on Sunday, the Pope said "Thou shalt not kill applies to the guilty as well as the innocent".

The Pontiff said the commandment has "absolute value".

He asked politicians around the world to "make a courageous and exemplary gesture" during the jubilee Year of Mercy.

The Pope's comments came one day before the start in Rome of an international conference against the death penalty.

Continue reading

In his letter announcing the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis reflects on the need for some priests to take on a more significant role in extending God's mercy to the people.

The Holy Father is calling these people "Missionaries of Mercy".

On 20 February, Maitland-Newcastle Bishop, Bill Wright will also commission Shortall for work in his diocese.

In the course of the year Shortall will travel independently in a motor home around the diocese focusing on those churches where there is no resident priest as well as other significant places where mercy is sought and given.

He will spend time in each place and will be available to all people who seek mercy, a listening ear and forgiveness.

While he will base himself around churches as a practical necessity, he will also visit significant places where mercy is sought and given.

He stresses that "each day I will be available to anyone who wishes to chat" in ways which echo Pope Francis' "desire that the year will be steeped in mercy, so that we can go out to every man and woman, bringing the goodness and tenderness of God!" (Papal Letter #5).

Watch Richard Shortall and other Missionaries of Mercy explaining their task

Sources

• mn.catholic.org.au
• mn.catholic.org.au
• Image: Screen shot youtube.com