Pope to celebrate Divine Mercy
Sunday in Rome church
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| The Altar of Divine Mercy with the statue of St.Faustina in the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, Rome |
This year, the feast of Divine Mercy, which is celebrated on
the Sunday after Easter, turns 20. Pope Francis will mark it on Sunday with a
Holy Mass at the Church of the Holy Spirit in Sassia, the centre of the
devotion to Divine Mercy in Rome.
By Robin Gomes
Some 200 meters from St. Peter’s Square is the Church of the
Holy Spirit, the sanctuary and centre of the devotion to Divine Mercy in Rome,
where Pope Francis will mark Divine Mercy Sunday, April 19. The Mass that will
be streamed and televised live, will have only a handful of faithful because of
the coronavirus lockdown in Italy and the Vatican.
Saints Faustina and John Paul II
The devotion to Divine Mercy was popularized by the
20th-century Polish nun, Saint Faustina Kowalska, as requested to her by Jesus
in visions and conversations..
Saint Pope John Paul II instituted Divine Mercy Sunday on
the occasion of the canonization of St. Faustina, April 30, 2000, the Second
Sunday after Easter, thus opening the devotion and the feast of Divine Mercy to
the Universal Church.
From his early years, Pope John Paul II had an ardent
devotion to Divine Mercy, as promoted by Sister Faustina, who died in 1938 at
the age of 33 in Krakow, where Karol Wojtyla was to become archbishop, cardinal
and was later elected Pope in 1978.
Pope John Paul II who beatified Sister Faustina on April 18,
1993, Sunday after Easter, died on April 2, 2005, the eve of the Sunday after
Easter.
John Paul II himself was beatified on May 1, 2011, Divine
Mercy Sunday, and declared a saint on April 27, 2014, also Divine Mercy
Sunday.
In an Apostolic Letter issued on the occasion of Divine
Mercy Sunday, April 7, 2002, Pope John Paul II granted indulgences to Catholics
who go to confession, receive Communion and recite specific prayers on that
day. Subsequently, this was formally decreed by the Apostolic
Penitentiary.
Popes John Paul II and Francis
During his general audience live-streamed on Wednesday, Pope
Francis told Polish pilgrims that on Sunday, April 19, he will celebrate the
feast of Divine Mercy, established by St. John Paul II, in response to the “the
request of the Lord Jesus to St. Faustina”. “Jesus said: ‘I desire that the
Feast of Mercy be a refuge and shelter for all souls.’ Mankind will not have
peace until it turns with trust to My Mercy.”
The Holy Father urged that prayers be said with “confidence
to Merciful Jesus for the Church and for all humanity, especially for those who
suffer in this very difficult time”.
Divine Mercy is certainly a strong, common bond between the
Popes John Paul II and Francis. “Dives in Misericordia” (Rich in Mercy), the
1980 encyclical of the Polish Pope is often cited by Pope Francis, the hallmark
of whose pontificate has been mercy.
In this regard, we particularly recall the Extraordinary
Jubilee of Mercy that Pope Francis called from December 8, 2015, to November
20, 2016.
Both the pontiffs are known for their sensitivity to human
dignity, poverty, disease and suffering, and the need to show
mercy.
Pope Francis envisages the Church as a “field hospital” that
particularly reaches out to the least, the lost and the last. On the eve of his
election, he said that “the Church is called to come out of herself and to go
to the peripheries, not only geographically, but also the existential
peripheries: the mystery of sin, of pain, of injustice, of ignorance and
indifference to religion, of intellectual currents, and of all forms of
misery.”
Today, the devotion to Divine Mercy is widespread across the
world. Churches and shrines dedicated to Divine Mercy have sprung up across the
world, most importantly the Divine Mercy Shrine in Krakow, which houses the
remains of Saint Faustina. Built between 1999–2002, the sanctuary has been
visited by 3 popes. Millions of pilgrims from around the world visit it every
year.
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