In an apostolic letter released at the close of the Holy Year of Mercy on the feast of Christ the King, Nov. 20, Pope Francis called on the Catholic Church worldwide “to promote a culture of mercy in which no one looks at another with indifference or turns away from the suffering of our brothers and sisters.” In this 19-page text, called “Misericordia et Misera,” (“Mercy and Misery”), the Argentine pope issued a call “to set in motion a real cultural revolution, beginning with simple gestures capable of reaching body and spirit, people’s very lives.” He sees the urgent need for this in today’s world, badly marked by polarization, violence, exclusion and the pathology of indifference. In a decision aimed at healing the grave wound caused by abortion, Francis has given priests worldwide the faculty to pardon the sin of abortion. Pope Francis said “Mercy cannot become a mere parenthesis in the life of the church; it constitutes her very existence, through which the profound truths of the Gospel are made manifest and tangible. Everything is revealed in mercy; everything is resolved in the merciful love of the Father.”
Mercy Continues
Show Comments (
)
Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.
The latest from america
Pope Francis has condemned surrogacy as a form of “false compassion.” Now, in Italy, engaging in surrogacy in another country, even where it may be legal, will be a criminal offense for Italian citizens.
In an exclusive interview with Gerard O’Connell, Cardinal Cupich says young Catholics will look back at the synod as “one of the most historic moments in their lives, for it has redirected the focus of where the church is going.”
‘Lolita’ may have been canceled, but Vladimir Nabokov remains the godfather of modern prose.
Donald Trump's victory in the presidential election will hang over the annual fall meeting of the U.S. Catholic bishops.