Priests celebrate Mass at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Denver Jan. 17, 2015. Credit: Catholic Charities/Jeffrey Bruno (CC BY 2.0).
In a new set of pastoral guidelines for the upcoming Holy Year of Mercy,
Pope Francis has made some significant moves, allowing all priests to
forgive the sin of abortion and granting SSPX priests the faculty to
forgive sins.
“One of the serious problems of our time is clearly
the changed relationship with respect to life,” the Pope said in a
Sept. 1 letter addressed to Archbishop Rino Fisichela, president of the
Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, charged with organizing
the jubilee.
In today’s society, “a widespread and insensitive
mentality” has become an obstacle to welcoming new life, with many who
don’t fully understand the deep harm done by the “tragedy of abortion,”
he said.
However, Francis also noted that there are many women
who, despite thinking abortion is wrong, feel that they have no other
choice.
“I am well aware of the pressure that has led them to
this decision. I know that it is an existential and moral ordeal. I have
met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing
and painful decision,” he said.
A woman who obtains an abortion
automatically incurs a "latae sententiae" excommunication, along with
those who assisted her in the process. Because of this excommunication,
the sin of abortion can normally only be absolved by a bishop, or
certain priests appointed by him.
For specific occasions such as
Advent or Lent, some bishops extend this faculty to all priests within
their diocese. In the U.S., the faculty to absolve abortion has already
been delegated to all priests.
However, Pope Francis is taking it
to a universal level. He said that the forgiveness of God can’t be
denied to a person who has sincerely repented, especially when the
person comes to the Sacrament of Confession in order to be genuinely
reconciled with the Father.
Because of this, Francis said, he has
allowed all priests for the Jubilee of Mercy “to absolve of the sin of
abortion those who have procured it and who, with contrite heart, seek
forgiveness for it.”
In another significant move, Francis has
also allowed priests from the Society of St Pius X to “validly and
licitly” hear confessions during the Holy Year.
“This Jubilee
Year of Mercy excludes no one,” the Pope said in his letter, explaining
several bishops have informed him of the society’s “good faith and
sacramental practice,” albeit combined with an “uneasy situation from
the pastoral standpoint.”
The Society of St. Pius X was founded
by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre in 1970 to form priests, as a response to
what he described as errors that had crept into the Church following the
Second Vatican Council. Its relations with the Holy See became strained
in 1988 when Archbishop Lefebvre consecrated four bishops without the
permission of Pope John Paul II.
The illicit consecration
resulted in the excommunication of the five bishops; the
excommunications were lifted in 2009 by Benedict XVI, and since then,
negotiations between the Society and the Vatican to re-establish full
communion have continued.
In his letter, Francis expressed his
confidence that solutions to recovering full communion with the priests
and superiors of the Society could be found in the near future.
In
the meantime, “motivated by the need to respond to the good of these
faithful, through my own disposition,” he declared that those who
approach priests of the Society for confession during the jubilee “shall
validly and licitly receive the absolution of their sins.”
Pope
Francis also turned to those who, due to reasons of age, illness or
incarceration, will not be able to walk through the Holy Door in order
to obtain the plenary indulgence connected with the jubilee.
Each
of the four major basilicas in Rome has a holy door, which are normally
sealed shut from the inside so that they cannot be opened. The doors
are only opened during jubilee years so that pilgrims can enter through
them in order to gain the indulgence.
In May, it was announced
that as part of the Holy Year for Mercy, holy doors will for the first
time be designated in dioceses, and will be located either in the
cathedral or in a church of special significance or a shrine of
particular importance for pilgrimages.
For the elderly and sick,
often confined to their homes, the Pope said that living their illness
and suffering with “joyful hope” and attending Mass, receiving communion
and participating in community prayer, “even through the various means
of communication,” is a way that they can receive the jubilee
indulgence.
In regards to prisoners, Francis said that they will be able to obtain the indulgence in the chapels of the prisons.
He
said that directing their thoughts and prayers to God each time they
cross the door of their cell would signify their passage through the
Holy Door, “because the mercy of God is able to transform hearts, and is
also able to transform bars into an experience of freedom.”
The
Pope also pointed to how a jubilee indulgence can be obtained for the
deceased, and encouraged faithful to pray to the Saints for them during
Mass, that “the merciful Face of the Father” free them of the remainder
of every fault.
Francis then turned to the corporal and spiritual
works of mercy, explaining that the experience of mercy “becomes
visible in the witness of concrete signs as Jesus himself taught us.”
Therefore,
each time that someone personally performs one or more of the 13 works
of mercy, such as feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, burying the
dead, willingly forgiving offenses, comforting the afflicted or praying
for the living and dead, that person will “surely obtain the Jubilee
Indulgence.”
For all those who will celebrate and experience the
grace of the jubilee either as pilgrims in Rome or in their individual
dioceses, Francis prayed that the indulgence would be “a genuine
experience of God’s mercy” for each one.
He affirmed that in
order to receive the indulgence one must make a pilgrimage to the Holy
Door, either in Rome or in their diocese, “as a sign of the deep desire
for true conversion.”
In addition to the cathedrals and shrines
where the Holy Door of Mercy will be opened, the Pope also designated
that the indulgence could be attained in the churches traditionally
identified as Jubilee Churches.
He stressed the importance of
remembering that the reception of the indulgence must be linked “first
and foremost to the Sacrament of Reconciliation and to the celebration
of the Holy Eucharist with a reflection on mercy.”
It will be
necessary, he said, “to accompany these celebrations with the profession
of faith and with prayer for me and for the intentions that I bear in
my heart for the good of the Church and of the entire world.”
