Abp Fisichella presents closing events for Jubilee of
Mercy
(Vatican
Radio) The Press
Office of the Holy See was the scene on Thursday morning for a
conference featuring the President of the Pontifical Council
for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella,
who presented the final major celebrations associated with the Extraordinary
Jubilee Year of Mercy at the Vatican: the Jubilee for Prisoners on November 5th and
6th; and the Jubilee for the Socially Excluded from November 11th to
13th.
Each
particular Jubilee will culminate with Mass in St. Peter’s Square.
The
Jubilee for Prisoners will involve a contingent of persons currently serving
penal sentences in Spain, along with persons of several different nationalities
currently incarcerated in Italy, as well as hundreds of people either
released on parole or who have served their sentences and are working to rejoin
society. Over 1 thousand people either currently serving time or who have
served time in prison are expected to take part in the Jubilee in Rome,
according to official estimates from the Council for New Evangelization.
On
Saturday, participants will have the opportunity to confess in the Jubilee
churches and make the pilgrimage to the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.
Mass
with the Holy Father is scheduled to begin at 10 AM on Sunday, following an
hour-long series of testimonies given by four people whose lives have been
changed through the experience of crime and punishment: a prisoner who has
experienced conversion, who will speak with the victim with whom he is
reconciled; the brother of a victim of a deadly crime who has become the
instrument of mercy and forgiveness; a minor who is serving his sentence; and
an agent of the Penitentiary Police, who has daily contact with inmates.
“We
will listen to their life experience,” explained Archbishop Fisichella, “and we
will understand that the theme of mercy is not a theoretical word, but a
genuine daily action that often represents a real existential challenge.”
The
following weekend, beginning on Friday the 11th and concluding
on Sunday, November 13th, the Church will mark the Jubilee of
Socially Excluded Persons: for anyone and everyone who, due to reasons ranging
from economic precariousness to disease, loneliness, or lack of family ties,
have difficulties and often remain at the margins of society, without a home or
a place to live.
“People,”
said Archbishop Fisichella, “we meet every day, people our eyes do not want to
see, and from whom we look away.”
The
approximately 6 thousand expected participants come from different countries:
France, Germany, Portugal, England, Spain, Poland, Netherlands, Italy, Hungary,
Slovakia, Croatia and Switzerland. The organization started by the French
organization Lazare, founded by Etienne Villemain.
Participants
will have an intense jubilee program: Friday at 11:30 AM, in the Paul VI Hall,
they are scheduled to meet Pope Francis, who will listen to some of their
testimonies and at the end will meet with them. In cdifferent churches
throughout the city there will be the opportunity to hear testimony on Saturday
10 AM. The churches are: San Salvatore in Lauro for the English language; Santa
Monica for Dutch, St. Louis of France for Portuguese; XII Apostles for French;
St. John the Baptist of the Florentines for Polish; Santa Maria in Vallicella
(Chiesa Nuova) for German; Santa Maria sopra Minerva for Italian; Sant’Andrea della
Valle for Spanish and Santa Maria Maddalena in the Campus Martius for Slovak.
Saturday
afternoon at 5 PM, there will be a Vigil of Mercy in the Basilica of St. Paul
Outside the Walls, which is to be preceded by a brief pilgrimage to the
Basilica’s Holy Door, starting from the front gardens.
On
Sunday, the Holy Father will preside at a Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica at 10
AM, following which he will lead all the faithful in the recitation of the Angelusprayer.
Sunday,
November 13th, is also to be the closing of the Door of Mercy in all
the churches and shrines throughout the world, including in the three Papal
Basilicas: at St. Paul Outside the Walls, at 5 PM; at St. John Lateran, at 5:30
PM; at Saint Mary Major 6 PM.
“We
are confident,” concluded Archbishop Fisichella, “that these two Jubilee events
will be experienced with the same intensity and experience of prayer with which
we have seen the entire Jubilee celebrated.”
That
enthusiasm was on display October 22nd, when an extraordinary crowd
of 93 thousand people participated – the highest number yet for a Jubilee
Audience, Archbishop Fisichella told reporters – in the Extraordinary Jubilee
Audience held once each month on a Saturday during the Jubilee Year.
The official
website of the Jubilee of Mercy estimates that 19,797,652 people have
participated in the Jubilee in Rome through the end of October.
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