VATICAN INFORMATION SERVICE   
   YEAR XXII - # 220   
   DATE 09-12-2015   
      
   Summary:   
   - Shine like beacons of God's mercy in the world   
   - Francis opens the Holy Door: mercy must precede judgement   
   - Angelus: the Solemnity of the Immaculate reminds us that mercy is all   
   - Homage to Mary Immaculate: I come on behalf of families, the elderly, the   
   incarcerated, and those from faraway lands   
   - Adoption by Moneyval of Second Progress Report of the Holy See and Vatican   
   City State   
   - Other Pontifical Acts   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Shine like beacons of God's mercy in the world   
    Vatican City, 9 December 2015 (VIS) - Pope Francis dedicated today's general   
   audience, the first of the Holy Year, to explaining why he convoked a Jubilee   
   of   
   Mercy. "The Church needs this extraordinary moment", he explained. "In our time   
   of profound change, the Church is called upon to offer her special   
   contribution,   
   making visible the signs of God's presence and closeness. And the Jubilee is a   
   propitious time for all, as contemplating Divine Mercy, that exceeds all human   
   limits and shines onto the darkness of sin, we can be surer and more effective   
   witnesses".   
    "Celebrating a Jubilee of Mercy means restoring the specifics of Christian   
   faith to the centre of our personal life and of our communities. ... This Holy   
   Year is offered to us so that we are able to experience in our life the sweet   
   and gentle touch of God's forgiveness, His presence next to us and His   
   closeness, especially in our moments of greatest need. ... This Jubilee is   
   therefore a special moment for the Church to learn to choose solely 'what God   
   likes the most'. ... Forgiving His children, having mercy on them, so that they   
   can in turn forgive their brethren, to shine like beacons of God's mercy in the   
   world. ... The Jubilee will be a propitious moment for the Church if we learn   
   to   
   choose what God likes the most, without giving in to the temptation to think   
   that there is something else more important or that takes priority. Nothing is   
   more important than choosing what God likes most, His mercy".   
    "The necessary work of renewing institutions and structures of the Church is   
   also a way that can lead us to a more lively and life-giving experience of   
   God's   
   mercy that alone can ensure that the Church is that city on the mount that   
   cannot remain hidden. If we should forget, even for just a moment, that mercy   
   is   
   what God likes the most, all our efforts would be in vain, as we would become   
   slaves to our institutions and our structures, no matter how reformed they may   
   be".   
    The Pope emphasised that the Church's aim during this Holy Year is to   
   "strongly   
   feel the joy of being found by Jesus, Who like the Good Shepherd has come in   
   search of us as we were lost. ... In this way we strengthen in ourselves our   
   certainty that mercy can truly contribute to building a more human world.   
   Especially in these times of ours, in which forgiveness is a rare guest in the   
   circles of human life, the call for mercy becomes more urgent, and this is true   
   in all places: in society, in institutions, at work and in the family".   
    Before concluding, he commented that while there appear to be many other needs   
   more urgent than that of mercy, at the root of the negation of mercy there is   
   always self-love, "which results in the pursuit of self-interest and the   
   accumulation of honours, riches or worldliness. There are so many   
   manifestations   
   of self-love, "that make mercy foreign to the world" that often we are not even   
   able to recognise them as limitations and sins. He concluded, "we must   
   recognise   
   that we are sinners, so as to strengthen our certainty of divine mercy".   
      
   ___________________________________________________________   
      
    Francis opens the Holy Door: mercy must precede judgement   
    Vatican City, 8 December 2015 (VIS) - This morning at 9.30, in the presence of   
   60 thousand faithful in St. Peter's Square, the Holy Father celebrated Holy   
   Mass   
   on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The celebration preceded the   
   opening of the Holy Door, the gesture with which the Extraordinary Jubilee of   
   Mercy began. In his homily the Pope spoke about the fullness of grace as   
   revealed in Mary, which is capable of transforming the heart. He described the   
   Holy Year as a gift of grace that leads us to discover the depth of the   
   Father's   
   mercy and, finally, he recalled the other door opened to the world by the   
   Vatican Council II fifty years ago, allowing the Church to encounter the men   
   and   
   women of our time.   
    The following is the full text of the homily:   
    "In a few moments I will have the joy of opening the Holy Door of Mercy. We   
   carry out this act - as I did in Bangui - so simple yet so highly symbolic, in   
   the light of the word of God which we have just heard. That word highlights the   
   primacy of grace. Again and again these readings make us think of the words by   
   which the angel Gabriel told an astonished young girl of the mystery which was   
   about to enfold her: 'Hail, full of grace'.   
    The Virgin Mary was called to rejoice above all because of what the Lord   
   accomplished in her. God's grace enfolded her and made her worthy of becoming   
   the Mother of Christ. When Gabriel entered her home, even the most profound and   
   impenetrable of mysteries became for her a cause for joy, a cause for faith, a   
   cause for abandonment to the message revealed to her. The fullness of grace can   
   transform the human heart and enable it to do something so great as to change   
   the course of human history.   
    The feast of the Immaculate Conception expresses the grandeur of God's love.   
   Not only does he forgive sin, but in Mary he even averts the original sin   
   present in every man and woman who comes into this world. This is the love of   
   God which precedes, anticipates and saves. The beginning of the history of sin   
   in the Garden of Eden yields to a plan of saving love. The words of Genesis   
   reflect our own daily experience: we are constantly tempted to disobedience, a   
   disobedience expressed in wanting to go about our lives without regard for   
   God's   
   will. This is the enmity which keeps striking at people's lives, setting them   
   in   
   opposition to God's plan. Yet the history of sin can only be understood in the   
   light of God's love and forgiveness. Sin can only be understood in this light.   
   Were sin the only thing that mattered, we would be the most desperate of   
   creatures. But the promised triumph of Christ's love enfolds everything in the   
   Father's mercy. The word of God which we have just heard leaves no doubt about   
   this. The Immaculate Virgin stands before us as a privileged witness of this   
   promise and its fulfilment.   
    This Extraordinary Year is itself a gift of grace. To pass through the Holy   
   Door means to rediscover the infinite mercy of the Father who welcomes everyone   
   and goes out personally to encounter each of them. It is he who seeks us! It is   
   he who comes to encounter us! This will be a year in which we grow ever more   
   convinced of God's mercy. How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we   
   speak of sins being punished by his judgement before we speak of their being   
   forgiven by his mercy! But that is the truth. We have to put mercy before   
   judgement, and in any event God's judgement will always be in the light of his   
   mercy. In passing through the Holy Door, then, may we feel that we ourselves   
   are   
   part of this mystery of love, of tenderness. Let us set aside all fear and   
   dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved. Instead, let us   
   experience the joy of encountering that grace which transforms all things.   
    Today, here in Rome and in all the dioceses of the world, as we pass through   
   the Holy Door, we also want to remember another door, which fifty years ago the   
   Fathers of the Second Vatican Council opened to the world. This anniversary   
   cannot be remembered only for the legacy of the Council's documents, which   
   testify to a great advance in faith. Before all else, the Council was an   
   encounter. A genuine encounter between the Church and the men and women of our   
   time. An encounter marked by the power of the Spirit, who impelled the Church   
   to   
   emerge from the shoals which for years had kept her self-enclosed so as to set   
   out once again, with enthusiasm, on her missionary journey. It was the   
   resumption of a journey of encountering people where they live: in their cities   
   and homes, in their workplaces. Wherever there are people, the Church is called   
   to reach out to them and to bring the joy of the Gospel, and the mercy and   
   forgiveness of God. After these decades, we again take up this missionary drive   
   with the same power and enthusiasm. The Jubilee challenges us to this openness,   
   and demands that we not neglect the spirit which emerged from Vatican II, the   
   spirit of the Samaritan, as Blessed Paul VI expressed it at the conclusion of   
   the Council. May our passing through the Holy Door today commit us to making   
   our   
   own the mercy of the Good Samaritan".   
    Following the Holy Mass, the Pope, followed by the cardinals, bishops and   
      
   --- MPost/386 v1.21   
    * Origin: Sursum Corda! BBS=Huntsville AL=bbs.sursum-corda.com (1:396/45)