Last summer, I saw a notice in the Catholic press about Pope Francis’s desire to commission priests, possessing the approval of their bishop or superior, from dioceses and institutes as “Missionaries of Mercy” who would become visible signs and instruments of the Holy Year of Mercy.
When I asked my bishop what he thought, he gave his endorsement to my application to Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, the Vatican dicastery assigned by the Holy Father to prepare for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy. A few months later I heard from Archbishop Fisichella that I had been chosen.
The Holy Year of Mercy began on December 8, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, and ends on November 20, the Solemnity of Christ the King. Its inspiration is the imperative of Jesus: “Be merciful, even as Your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
On February 9, the Missionaries of Mercy attended an audience with Pope Francis in the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace in Vatican City. He challenged me and more than 720 priests present (of the roughly 1,200 Missionaries of Mercy worldwide) with these words: “Being a Missionary of Mercy is a responsibility that is entrusted to you, because it calls you to testify first-hand to the closeness of God and to His way of loving. Not our way, which is always limited and sometimes contradictory, but His way of loving, His way of forgiving, which is truly mercy.”
The next day, Ash Wednesday, the Holy Father, who had commissioned us by decree, offered these words to us: “Dear brothers, may you help to open the doors of hearts, to overcome shame, not to avoid the light. May your hands bless and lift up brothers and sisters with paternity; through you may the gaze and the hands of God rest on His children and heal them of their wounds.”
Pope Francis asked us to make ourselves available to hear Confessions and preach on the theme of mercy throughout the Holy Year, especially during Lent.
He also granted to the Missionaries of Mercy the faculty to remit, for the duration of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, the penalty of automatic excommunication, reserved to the Holy See, attached to the four canonical delicts: profaning the Most Blessed Sacrament by taking it or retaining it for a sacrilegious purpose; use of physical force against the Roman Pontiff; absolution of an accomplice in a sin against the Sixth Commandment; and direct violation against the sacramental seal by a confessor.
In the months after I was commissioned, I have found great interest among practising Catholics in my presence as a Missionary of Mercy and, above all, what it stands for. The role offers me another opportunity to reflect on and be grateful for God’s incredible gift of mercy and our subsequent obligation to be merciful to our neighbours.
Since Ash Wednesday, I have travelled to parishes, a Marian shrine and a retreat centre, both within and outside my diocese, to offer Holy Mass, preach, hear Confessions and present conferences and days of recollection. I have encouraged the fulfilling of the corporal and the spiritual works of mercy – veritable treasures in the life of the Church. And I have visited the sick and met many people pining anew for the Lord’s unfailing mercy. As a friend told me, I am to share the light that is Christ Jesus. And that realisation has positively coloured my appreciation for this unique privilege. Isn’t this what all priests, deacons, consecrated persons and the laity are perpetually commissioned to do by virtue of the Sacrament of Baptism? Isn’t each of the baptised always to be a missionary of mercy?
Yes, each of us is called to proclaim boldly Jesus Christ as Lord. During this Holy Year, priests who are appointed by Pope Francis as Missionaries of Mercy not only forgive sins, even some normally reserved to the Holy See. They also serve as “heralds of the joy of forgiveness”, as the Pope put it in the Bull Misericordiae Vultus, inviting all to consider afresh within the context of the Jubilee the mercy of God and our sacred duty to dispense it freely.
The heavenly intercession of Mary, the Mother of Mercy, keeps me aware of her Son’s words: “You received without pay, give without pay” (Matthew 10:8). Being a Missionary of Mercy is not a personal honour. Rather, by calling attention again to God’s mercy, it is another way to serve Christ and all peoples.
Mgr Charles M Mangan is a priest of the Diocese of Sioux Falls, South Dakota
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