(Vatican Radio) This Sunday the Holy Year of Mercy will conclude with Mass in St Peter’s Basilica and the closing of the Holy Door by Pope Francis. Holy Doors in Churches around the world have been a key feature of this Jubilee Year, not least in the Archdiocese of Perth in Australia. People throughout the year have made pilgrimages to the Cathedral there and to various parish Churches in the diocese to pray for the grace of mercy in their own lives.According to the Auxillary Bishop of Perth, Donald Sproxton, a lot of emphasis has been put on education and reflection in order to give people including the youth of the diocese the opportunity to show mercy in their relationships, and their work.Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with Auxillary Bishop of Perth, Donald Sproxton Bishop Sproxton also highlighted the numbers of people who have been receiving the sacrament of reconciliation saying, “the numbers of people coming to confession has increased enormousl...
(Vatican Radio) This Sunday the Holy Year of Mercy will conclude with Mass in St Peter’s Basilica and the closing of the Holy Door by Pope Francis. Holy Doors in Churches around the world have been a key feature of this Jubilee Year, not least in the Archdiocese of Perth in Australia. People throughout the year have made pilgrimages to the Cathedral there and to various parish Churches in the diocese to pray for the grace of mercy in their own lives.
According to the Auxillary Bishop of Perth, Donald Sproxton, a lot of emphasis has been put on education and reflection in order to give people including the youth of the diocese the opportunity to show mercy in their relationships, and their work.
Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with Auxillary Bishop of Perth, Donald Sproxton
Bishop Sproxton also highlighted the numbers of people who have been receiving the sacrament of reconciliation saying, “the numbers of people coming to confession has increased enormously in this last twelve months.”
The Bishop said that a number of initiatives have developed out of the Year of Mercy and volunteers have been out in force helping social service agencies in their work. They have been, “visiting prisons, encouraging those who have already been providing meals for the poor”.
Another area where the Church has been working, noted the Auxillary Bishop, is advocating for the Aboriginal people, for example, “trying to get them back into housing.” He said, that “they are excited in a sense that this Year of Mercy has meant there’s a possibility of more engagement with the other ethnic groups particularly the Anglo Saxon groups here in the diocese.”
As the curtain comes down on this Extraordinary Year, there is the hope that it will have long term effects on the faithful around the world. Bishop Sproxton said that in his diocese those long term effects, “will be seen in actions at local parish communities”, and people he added, will “keep working at lifting people out of poverty and assisting them to find dignity in their life again.”
Pope Francis waves while traveling by boat in Venice, Italy, for a meeting with young people at the Basilica della Madonna della Salute on April 28, 2024. Earlier in the day he met with inmates at a women's prison. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 08:00 am (CNA).Pope Francis opened his one-day visit to Venice on Sunday morning with a meeting with female inmates where he reaffirmed the importance of fraternity and human dignity, noting that prison can be a place of new beginnings. "A stay in prison can mark the beginning of something new, through the rediscovery of the unsuspected beauty in us and in others, as symbolized by the artistic event you are hosting and the project to which you actively contribute," the pope said to the female inmates gathered in the intimate courtyard of the Women's Prison on the Island of Giudecca. Pope Francis left the Vatican by helicopter at approximately 6:30 in the mo...
Pope Francis prays in front of the tomb of St. Mark the Evangelist inside St. Mark's Basilica in Venice on April 28, 2024. / Credit: Daniel Ibañez/CNARome Newsroom, Apr 28, 2024 / 09:35 am (CNA).Pope Francis had a full slate of events Sunday during his day trip to Venice, a trip that tied together a message of unity and fraternity with the artistic patrimony of a city that has been a privileged place of encounter across the centuries. "Faith in Jesus, the bond with him, does not imprison our freedom. On the contrary, it opens us to receive the sap of God's love, which multiplies our joy, takes care of us like a skilled vintner, and brings forth shoots even when the soil of our life becomes arid," the pope said to over 10,000 pilgrims gathered in St. Mark's Square. Framing his homily during the Mass on the theme of unity, one of the central points articulated throughout several audiences spread across the morning, Pope Francis reminded Christians: "Remaining ...
Prayer house at San Simeone, Italy, September 2012. / Credit: Courtesy of Ricostruttori nella preghieraRome, Italy, Apr 28, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).Across Italy there are houses of prayer run by the Ricostruttori (Reconstructors) community, a Catholic movement dedicated to people who are far from the Church but attracted to spirituality, particularly Eastern meditation and Buddhist practices. The Reconstructors was founded in 1978 by Jesuit Father Gian Vittorio Cappelletto. "During the postconciliar period, the Church was faced with the need for new forms of evangelization and apostolate, to reach out to people who were drifting away," Don Roberto Rondanina, priest and superior of the Ricostruttori, explained to CNA. "It was a time when Eastern meditation, Hinduism, Buddhism, the New Age ... were beginning to spread in Europe." "Father Cappelletto, who lived in Turin, sought to understand the meaning of this 'flight to the East' and felt the need to find new forms of sp...