Misericordiae Vultus

Who reads papal bulls these days?  Only old shriveled up scholars in dry, dusty libraries, right?

Wrong.

I read the most recent papal bull, from the hand of Pope Francis, last week.  He issued it on April 11.  What a document.  If I tell you once, I will tell you many times, read it.

"Misericordiae Vultus" is translated "The Face of Mercy."  The first two sentences grabbed me.  "Jesus Christ is the face of the Father's mercy.  These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith."  

In this letter, Pope Francis announced an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy, from December 8, 2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, to November 20, 2016, the Solemnity of Christ the King.  The pope says explicitly that he chose December 8 because it marks the 50th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council.  He wants the whole church to breathe in the spirit and letter of Vatican II.  But most of all he wants the whole church, and the whole world, to know better God's mercy.  

Francis says he will open the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica , and then the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Rome -- the Basilica of St. John Lateran -- in the first few weeks of the jubilee year.  But he asks that every diocese in the world also open a Door of Mercy, in its cathedral, or in another special church.  This will allow the faithful everywhere to participate in pilgrimages of mercy within their local diocese "as a visible sign of the Church's universal communion."  

The papal bull is a brief but rich walk through mercy in our faith lives:  in and through Jesus Christ, his deeds and his words; in the Old Testament; in the New Testament; in the lives of saints; in the liturgy; and in the lived experience of the People of God.  He says, mysteriously, in paragraph 18, that during lent of 2016 he intends to send out "Missionaries of Mercy" to the world.    Francis calls for increased appreciation and application of the spiritual and corporeal works of mercy.  He urges priests in the confessional to redouble efforts to be merciful to those who come to the sacrament of confession.  Francis does not neglect justice, but in a passage that to me recalled Pope Benedict's excellent treatment of justice and charity in "Caritas in Veritate," he weaves together mercy and justice.  As with other jubilee years, this Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy entails the granting of indulgences.  But only so that "God's forgiveness knows no bounds."

Francis also takes the jubilee in a new direction, asking "that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter  with these two great religions [Judaism and Islam] and with other noble religious traditions."  

"Mercy is the very foundation of the Church's life."  As I read it, I could hear the cadence of Francis' daily and Sunday homilies.  These talks, most often off-the-cuff and spoken without notes, are homespun, simple, direct, focused on Christ, inviting.  So also is this papal bull.  

You can access the document at  www.vatican.va  and click on "Apostolic Letters."  This is contemporary spiritual reading at its best.  Please treat yourself to 20 minutes of quiet contemplation and read it.