7 Updates on the Jubilee of Mercy
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who is charged with running the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, today shared the latest on how the Holy Year is proceeding.
Here below is a summary of the developments the archbishop revealed to reporters this morning:
1) Archbishop Fisichella said an “incredible number” of people have registered for Jubilee events, showing how much the Year “has answered a true need of the people of God.” According to current data, 1,392,000 people have participated in Jubilee events in Rome, 40% of whom come from outside Italy, mostly Spain and France.
2) Pope Francis has carried out two particular concrete signs of witness to God's mercy in Rome: opening the “Door of Charity” in a homeless shelter and celebrating Mass there in December, and in one afternoon this month, visiting a retirement home and a care home for those living in vegetative states.
3) The urns containing the relics of Saint Leopold Mandić and Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina will arrive on Feb. 3. They will be placed in the Church of San Lorenzo Fuori le Mura. Various liturgical events are planned while the relics are in Rome and the Vatican before they return to their original homes on Feb. 11.
4) On Ash Wednesday, the Holy Father will give the mandate to the Missionaries of Mercy. Over 1,000 priests have been nominated directly by the Pope to be such missionaries, giving them the authority to “pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as confessors will be even clearer.” 700 will arrive in Rome to receive the mandate, and Francis will meet with them on Feb. 9.
5) Archbishop Fisichella said he had received a “great response” from priests to participate as Missionaries of Mercy but had to place a limit on numbers so their special value can be maintained. As an example of a Missionary of Mercy, he held up a Father Richard from Australia who is traveling in a camper over vast distances in his rural diocese as a “Missionary of Mercy on Wheels”.
6) Tomorrow (Jan. 30) Pope Francis will hold his first Jubilee Audience in St. Peter’s Square. Archbishop Fisichella said the Holy Father has “responded generously to the many requests he has received from pilgrims who wish to meet him.” Such an audience will take place on one Saturday every month, in addition to the Pope’s weekly general audiences on Wednesdays. 20,000 people have registered for tomorrow's event.
7) There will also be a Jubilee for the Curia and institutions connected to the Holy See on Feb. 22 which will include a meditation followed by a procession through St. Peter’s Square and a papal Mass.
Edward Pentin Edward Pentin is the Register’s Senior Contributor and EWTN News Vatican Analyst. He began reporting on the Pope and the Vatican with Vatican Radio before moving on to become the Rome correspondent for EWTN's National Catholic Register. He has also reported on the Holy See and the Catholic Church for a number of other publications including Newsweek, Newsmax, Zenit, The Catholic Herald, and The Holy Land Review, a Franciscan publication specializing in the Church and the Middle East. Edward is the author of The Next Pope: The Leading Cardinal Candidates (Sophia Institute Press, 2020) and The Rigging of a Vatican Synod? An Investigation into Alleged Manipulation at the Extraordinary Synod on the Family (Ignatius Press, 2015). Follow him on Twitter at @edwardpentin.
