n a surprise announcement, Francis has declared an Extraordinary Holy Year which will begin on 8 December 2015 and conclude on 20 November 2016, the Feast of Christ the King. The Holy Door will be opened to mark the occasion
"The message of Jesus is mercy. For me, I say this humbly, it is the Lord’s most powerful message,” Francis said in the homily he pronounced off the cuff in the parish church of Saint Anne in the Vatican, just four days after he was elected Pope. “I believe that this is the season of mercy,” he said in the press conference held during the return flight from Rio de Janeiro, at the end of his first international visit to Brazil on 29 July 2013. “Mercy is not just a pastoral attitude but it is the very substance of the Gospel of Jesus,” the Pope wrote in a letter he sent to the Catholic University of Argentina last Monday. Mercy has been a central theme of these first two years of his pontificate and today, on the second anniversary of his election, Francis has announced the indiction of a Holy Year of Mercy. The Pope made the announcement himself during the penitential liturgy he presided in St. Peter’s Basilica, listening to some faithful’s confessions. The Extraordinary Jubilee will start on 8 December, on the 50th anniversary of the conclusion of the Ecumenical Vatican Council II and will run until the Feast of Christ the King on 20 November 2016.
Francis announced the Holy Year saying: “Dear Brothers and Sisters, I have often reflected upon how the Church can make its mission as a witness of mercy more apparent. It is a journey that begins with spiritual conversion. For this reason I have decided to proclaim an Extraordinary Jubilee which focuses on God’s mercy. It will be a Holy Year of Mercy. We wish to experience this inspired by the Word of the Lord: “Be merciful, just as your father is merciful” (cfr. Luke 6:36). This Holy Year will begin on the next Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and will conclude on 20 November 2016, Sunday of Our Lord Jesus Christ King of the universe and the living face of the Father’s mercy."
"I entrust the organisation of this Jubilee to the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, so that it may bring it to life as a new leg of the Church’s journey on its mission to bring the Gospel of mercy to every person. I am certain that this Jubilee will give the whole Church the joy of rediscovering the mercy of God and making it grow. All of us are called to be merciful and offer consolation to every man and woman of our time. We entrust it henceforth to the Mother of Mercy, that she may cast her gaze upon us and watch over our journey."
Responding to a journalists’ question on the return flight from Rio de Janeiro in July 2013, Francis said: “I believe that this is the season of mercy. This new era we have entered, and the many problems in the Church – like the poor witness given by some priests, problems of corruption in the Church, the problem of clericalism for example – have left so many people hurt, left so much hurt. The Church is a mother: she has to go out to heal those who are hurting, with mercy. If the Lord never tires of forgiving, we have no other choice than this: first of all, to care for those who are hurting. The Church is a mother, and she must travel this path of mercy. And find a form of mercy for all. When the prodigal son returned home, I don’t think his father told him: “You, sit down and listen: what did you do with the money?” No! He celebrated! Then, perhaps, when the son was ready to speak, he spoke. The Church has to do this, when there is someone… not only wait for them, but go out and find them! That is what mercy is. And I believe that this is a kairos: this time is a kairos of mercy. But John Paul II had the first intuition of this, when he began with Faustina Kowalska, the Divine Mercy… He had something, he had intuited that this was a need in our time.”
According to Biblical tradition, kairos is a suitable moment in time, an opportune moment for an act of God to be grasped in the present. With today’s announcement, Francis wishes to encourage people to rediscover the sacrament of penance and reconciliation and remember that God never tires of forgiving, we are the ones who tire of seeking his mercy."The bull of indiction will be issued next month, on Divine Mercy Sunday (12 April) - a celebration introduced by John Paul II. This new Holy Year, therefore, does not come under the category of “ordinary” Holy Years celebrated every 25 years (the last of these being the Jubilee of 2000) but under the category of “extraordinary” Holy Years, which the Church proclaims for outstanding events. These include the Jubilee proclaimed by John Paul II in 1983 to mark 1950 years since the Redemption carried out by Christ through his Death and Resurrection in the year 33.
“The way of the Church” - the Pope said in the important homily he delivered last 15 February to new (and old) cardinals - is not to condemn anyone for eternity.” Rather, “It is to pour out the balm of God’s mercy on all those who ask for it with a sincere heart. The way of the church is precisely to leave her four walls behind and to go out in search of those who are distant, those essentially on the ‘outskirts’ of life; to adopt fully God’s own approach; to follow the Master who said: “Those who are well have no need of the physician, but those who are sick; I have come to call, not the righteous but sinners to repentance.”
The homily Francis pronounced in St. Peter’s Square this afternoon, which ended with the announcement of the Jubilee, is particularly significant in helping us understand how the Pope views this subject. Francis commented on the Gospel passage in which the sinful woman throws herself at Jesus’ feet and pours perfume on them, to explain the difference between her attitude and that of Simon the Pharisee. In the first case “love goes beyond justice” while “on the contrary, Simon the Pharisee is unable to find the path of love. He is fixed on formality… In his thoughts he invokes only justice and in doing so he errs. His judgement of the woman drives him away from the truth.”
“Jesus’ call encourages each of us to look underneath the surface of things,” the Pope explained, "particularly when we are face to face with a person. We are called to look beyond and to focus on the heart in order to see how much generosity one is capable of. No one can be excluded from God’s mercy; everyone knows how to access it and the Church is a home that welcomes all and rejects no one. Its doors remain wide open so that those who are touched by grace can find the certainty of forgiveness. The greater the sin, the deeper Church’s love must be for those who convert.”
After announcing the Holy Year of Mercy the Pope knelt down at a confessional in St. Peter's Basilica and confessed in public. He did so last year too, before listening to the confessions of a group of faithful.
