There are 1,07 of them, and they come from every continent, including the distant Churches of Burma, East Timor, Zimbabwe, China and Vietnam. We are talking about the "Missionaries of Mercy", priests who on Ash Wednesday, in a crowded celebration in the Vatican Basilica, received from Pope Francis the mandate and authority, throughout the Jubilee Year, to also forgive sins that are usually reserved to the Apostolic See.
An absolute novelty of this Jubilee, foreseen in the Bull of Convocation, is the following Misericordiae vultuswhere the Holy Father describes them as "sign of the Church's maternal solicitude for the People of God, so that they may enter deeply into the richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith"..
These Missionaries are entrusted with the task of being "artisans before all of us of a meeting full of humanity, source of liberation, rich in responsibility, to overcome the obstacles and to take up again the new life of Baptism.".
Their small number - 0.25 % of the total number of priests in the world - was designed precisely to keep the number of priests in the world at a minimum. "the value of this peculiar sign that expresses the extraordinary meaning of the event".Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, which is in charge of organizing the Jubilee, explained.
Among the sins that can be absolved are, as we said, those normally reserved to the Apostolic See. The Code of Canon Law indicates five: the profanation of consecrated species, physical violence against the Holy Father, the absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the sixth commandment, the direct violation of the secret of confession, episcopal ordination without pontifical mandate. However, it is clear from the "mandate" of the Missionaries - and this was also emphasized by Msgr. Fisichella - that they do not have the faculty to absolve from this last sin, in which they have incurred for example in the Fraternity of St. Pius X (the so-called "Lefebvrians", to whom, moreover, the Pope has given the possibility of validly confessing to the faithful), but above all in the Church in China and the bishops who in these years have been elected without pontifical mandate or who have voluntarily participated in illicit episcopal ordinations. These petitions will always be addressed directly to the Pope, after recognition and repentance for the sin committed.
To this must be added another sin (which carries a penalty of excommunication reserved to the bishop) that Pope Francis has granted the possibility of absolving to all priests, also only during the Jubilee Year, which is that of abortion, for the purpose of "as many as have sought it and in repentance of heart ask to be forgiven.". In this case, the priests are invited to know how to conjugate "words of genuine welcome with a reflection that helps to understand the sin committed, and to indicate a path of authentic conversion"..
In the meeting he had in the Aula Paolo VI with a representation of about 700 Missionaries of Mercy the day before entrusting them with the mandate, Pope Francis wanted to emphasize the "responsibility entrusted to you"to be witnesses, not only of the proximity, but also of the "way of loving". of God. And he has indicated three peculiarities: "expressing the motherhood of the Church"which "always generates new children in the faith".It nourishes them and through God's forgiveness regenerates them to a new life; "to know how to see the desire for forgiveness present in the heart of the penitent."; "cover the sinner with the blanket of mercy, that he may no longer be ashamed and that he may regain the joy of his filial dignity and may know where he stands".
"Upon entering the confessional."added the Pope, "let us always remember that it is Christ who welcomes, it is Christ who listens, it is Christ who forgives, it is Christ who gives peace.". Therefore, "let us give great space to this desire for God and His forgiveness; let us make it emerge as a true expression of the grace of the Spirit that moves to conversion of heart.". In short, Francisco explained, it is not "How can we bring the lost sheep into the fold with the gavel of judgment, but with holiness of life, which is the principle of renewal and reform in the Church" (1)..
At the Holy Mass on Ash Wednesday, giving the missionary mandate, the Pope once again encouraged them to "help to open the doors of the heart, to overcome shame, not to flee from the light. May your hands bless and lift up the brothers and sisters with paternity; through you may the gaze and hands of the Father rest on the children and heal their wounds.".
Finally, he pointed out as an example the "ministers of God's forgiveness" St. Leopold Mandić and St. Pio of Pietrelcina, whose mortal remains were exposed in St. Peter's Basilica for the veneration of the faithful precisely on those days: "When you feel the weight of the sins that confess to you, and the limitation of your person and your words, trust in the power of mercy that goes out to meet everyone as love and knows no boundaries.".
