The Italian Church will help struggling families pay overdue utility bills for the Jubilee Year of Mercy. The initiative to help people who face having their utilities cut off was launched by Italy’s bishops as part of the Jubilee tradition of forgiving debts. “We are starting a project for the jubilee that sees mercy as Read more
With the approach of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy I would like to focus on several points which I believe require attention to enable the celebration of the Holy Year to be for all believers a true moment of encounter with the mercy of God. It is indeed my wish that the Jubilee be a Read more
The Vatican is now taking applications from priests who want to be ‘missionaries of mercy’ for the upcoming jubilee Year of Mercy. In Misericordiae Vultus, promulgated in April, Pope Francis stated that the missionaries of mercy would be granted “the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See”. These sins include desecration Read more
The Vatican has chosen a composition by English Catholic composer Paul Inwood to be the official setting for the hymn of the Holy Year of Mercy. Mr Inwood’s setting was judged the best entry in an international competition organised by The Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation. The competition was judged by Read more
Planning is underway for Pope Francis to have an extra General Audience each month during the Jubilee Year of Mercy. The Prefect of the Pontifical Household, Archbishop Georg Ganswein, told Vatican Radio the extra General Audiences could possibly be on a Saturday. Archbishop Gaenswein said that since the beginning of Pope Francis’s pontificate in March Read more
The body of stigmatist St Pio of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) will reportedly be exposed in St Peter’s Basilica for a week in February next year. A “Jubilee for Padre Pio’s prayer group” will take place on February 13, 2016, as the body of the Capuchin saint will be exposed in St Peter’s from February 8-14, Read more
An American academic has proposed Catholic social activist Dorothy Day as the perfect patron of the upcoming Year of Mercy. Dr Lance Richey has edited a recent edition of Day’s journal from the early years of the Catholic Worker Movement. He also organises an annual Dorothy Day conference. “I do think that it’s a very Read more
Every cathedral should have a holy door as part of the year of mercy, the bishops of England and Wales have said. The bishops have welcomed Pope Francis’s initiatives for the Jubilee Year of Mercy which starts on December 8. Among these is installing a holy door at each cathedral and shrine. Holy doors, or Read more
Pope Francis has announced a Jubilee Year of Mercy in order to celebrate God’s forgiveness. The “extraordinary Holy Year” will take place from December 8, 2015, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, to November 20, 2016, the Feast of Christ the King. Announcing the closing date, the Pope added a new term to the title Read more