To My Venerable Brother
Archbishop Rino Fisichella
President of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New Evangelization
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
living experience of the closeness of the Father, whose tenderness is almost
tangible, so that the faith of every believer may be strengthened and thus
testimony to it be ever more effective.
My thought first of all goes to all the faithful who,
whether in individual Dioceses or as pilgrims to Rome, will experience the grace of the
Jubilee. 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. To
experience and obtain the Indulgence, the faithful are called to make 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 a sign of the
deep desire for true conversion. Likewise, I dispose that the Indulgence may be
obtained in the Shrines in which the Door of Mercy is open and in the churches
which traditionally are identified as Jubilee Churches. 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. It
will be necessary to accompany these celebrations with the profession of faith
and with prayer for me and for the intentions that I bear in my heart for the
good of the Church and of the entire world.
Additionally, I am thinking of those for whom, for various
reasons, it will be impossible to enter the Holy Door, particularly the sick
and people who are elderly and alone, often confined to the home. For them it
will be of great help to live their sickness and suffering as an experience of
closeness to the Lord who in the mystery of his Passion, death and Resurrection
indicates the royal road which gives meaning to pain and loneliness. Living
with faith and joyful hope this moment of trial, receiving communion or
attending Holy Mass and community prayer, even through the various means of
communication, will be for them the means of obtaining the Jubilee Indulgence.
My thoughts also turn 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. May they all be touched in a tangible
way by the mercy of the Father who wants to be close to those who have the
greatest need of his forgiveness. 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.
I have asked the Church in this Jubilee Year to rediscover
the richness encompassed by the spiritual and corporal works of mercy. The
experience of mercy, indeed, becomes visible in the witness of concrete signs
as Jesus himself taught us. Each time that one of the faithful personally
performs one or more of these actions, he or she shall surely obtain the
Jubilee Indulgence. Hence the commitment to live by mercy so as to obtain the
grace of complete and exhaustive forgiveness by the power of the love of the
Father who excludes no one. The Jubilee Indulgence is thus full, the fruit of
the very event which is to be celebrated and experienced with faith, hope and
charity.
Furthermore, the Jubilee Indulgence can also be obtained for
the deceased. We are bound to them by the witness of faith and charity that
they have left us. Thus, as we remember them in the Eucharistic celebration,
thus we can, in the great mystery of the Communion of Saints, pray for them,
that the merciful Face of the Father free them of every remnant of fault and
strongly embrace them in the unending beatitude.
One of the serious problems of our time is clearly the
changed relationship with respect to life. A widespread and insensitive
mentality has led to the loss of the proper personal and social sensitivity to
welcome new life. 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 they have no other option. I think in particular of all
the women who have resorted to abortion. 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. For this reason too, 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. 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.
A final consideration concerns those faithful who for
various reasons choose to attend churches officiated by priests of the
Fraternity of St Pius X. This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one. From
various quarters, several Brother Bishops have told me of their good faith and
sacramental practice, combined however with an uneasy situation from the
pastoral standpoint. I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to
recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the Fraternity. In the
meantime, motivated by the need to respond to the good of these faithful,
through my own disposition, I establish that those who during the Holy Year of
Mercy approach these priests of the Fraternity of St Pius X to celebrate the
Sacrament of Reconciliation shall validly and licitly receive the absolution of
their sins.
Trusting in the intercession of the Mother of Mercy, I
entrust the preparations for this Extraordinary Jubilee Year to her protection.
From the Vatican,
1 September 2015
Francis
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Catholic League
Pope Expands Forgiveness Process
September 1, 2015
Bill Donohue comments on a letter issued today by Pope
Francis:
Pope Francis has authorized an expansion of the forgiveness process for those
who have had an abortion. Traditionally, when it comes to the sin of abortion,
the Sacrament of Reconciliation has been the preserve of designated members of
the clergy. But when the Jubilee Year of Mercy begins December 8, all
priests will be eligible to participate in the reconciliation process. This
includes priests who belong to the Society of St. Pius X, a non-canonical group
that rejects the teachings of Vatican II. In doing so, the pope is making
genuflections in two different directions.
"Since the first century," the Catholic Catechism says, "the
Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching
has not changed and remains unchangeable." Nothing that Pope Francis said
today changes that reality. Indeed, he refers to abortion as a "profoundly
unjust" act. But he emphasizes that forgiveness awaits those who repent;
he only seeks to make this process more accommodating. Therefore, during the
Jubilee Year, he has decided to bestow on all priests "the discretion to
absolve the sin of abortion," as long as "those who have procured
it" come to the priest "with contrite heart, seek[ing] forgiveness
for it."
Already there are pro-abortion activists exclaiming that what the pope has
initiated is not enough. Catholics for Choice, a rabidly anti-Catholic group
with no members—it is funded by elites such as the Ford Foundation and Warren
Buffett—is denouncing the Holy Father, saying that "this guy" has not
changed "the injustice" of the Church's teachings.
Fortunately, almost all Catholics reject the extremism of this pro-abortion
entity. In a Polling Company survey released yesterday that was commissioned by the
Catholic League, we found that roughly four-out-of-five Catholics at least
partly accept the Church's teachings on abortion, and that only five percent
approve of abortion for any reason and at any time (the position of Catholics
for Choice).
Pope Francis is not going "soft" on abortion. He is simply trying to
reach out to those who have been a part of it, asking them to seek forgiveness.