Pope Francis on Tuesday
outlined his position on indulgences during the upcoming Jubilee
Year of Mercy, emphasizing forgiveness for all believers who are
repentant, including those who have had abortions and the
incarcerated.
"This Jubilee Year of Mercy doesn't exclude anyone," Pope
Francis said.
In an extensive letter to Monsignor Rino Fisichella, the
Vatican's director of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, Pope Francis
allows priests to absolve the sin of abortion during the Jubilee
beginning December 8, something that usually only a diocesan
bishop is permitted to do.
"One of the serious problems of our time is certainly the
modified relationship with life, a widespread mentality that has
caused a loss of personal and social sensitivity towards
welcoming a new life," Pope Francis said.
"God's forgiveness can't be denied to anyone who has
repented," he said, calling on priests to "prepare themselves
for this big task, knowing how to combine words of genuine
welcoming with a reflection that helps one to understand the sin
committed".
The head of the Vatican press office, Father Federico
Lombardi, stressed that the pope's move did not "attenuate the
gravity of the sin" involved in aborting.
Pope Francis also said that during the Jubilee Year, those
who confess at churches officiated by members of the Fraternity
of St. Pius X - the group founded by the traditionalist Marcel
Lefebvre, who was excommunicated 1988 for consecrating four
bishops without a papal mandate - would "validly and licitly
receive the absolution of their sins, trusting that in the near
future full communion will be recovered with Rome".
The pope called on the faithful to perform a "brief
pilgrimage" to a Holy Door - located at each of the four papal
basilicas in Rome, every cathedral, and in churches designated
by a diocese bishop - as a "sign of the deep desire of true
conversion".
The Holy Door at St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, the
northernmost entrance to the church, is cemented shut and only
opened for Jubilee Years.
Pope Francis also directed his attention towards the
incarcerated, and said they will be able to receive an
indulgence in prison chapels.
"Every time that (prisoners) pass the door of their cell,
thinking of and praying to the Father, may this gesture signify
for them walking through the Holy Door," Pope Francis said.
Italy's jail population, which had been rapped several
times by the EU for overcrowding, has returned to manageable
proportions in the last two years, dropping by 14,000 inmates to
some 52,000.
The fall has come through a string of legislative action,
some of it spurred by papal calls.
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