Excerpts from BULL OF
INDICTION OF THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE OF MERCY
Given in Rome, at Saint
Peter’s on 11 April, 2015
by Pope Francis
The Holy Year will open on 8 December
2015, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. This liturgical feast day
recalls God’s action from the very beginning of the history of mankind. After
the sin of Adam and Eve, God did not wish to leave humanity alone in the throes
of evil. And so he turned his gaze to Mary, holy and immaculate in love (cf.
Eph 1:4), choosing her to be the Mother of man’s Redeemer. When faced with the
gravity of sin, God responds with the fullness of mercy. Mercy will always be greater
than any sin, and no one can place limits on the love of God who is ever ready
to forgive.
I will have the joy of opening the Holy
Door on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. On that day, the Holy Door
will become a Door of Mercy through which anyone who enters will experience the
love of God who consoles, pardons, and instills hope.
On the following Sunday, the Third Sunday
of Advent, the Holy Door of the Cathedral of Rome – that is, the Basilica of
Saint John Lateran – will be opened. In the following weeks, the Holy Doors of
the other Papal Basilicas will be opened. On the same Sunday, I will announce
that in every local church, at the cathedral – the mother church of the
faithful in any particular area – or, alternatively, at the co-cathedral or
another church of special significance, a Door of Mercy will be opened for the
duration of the Holy Year. At the discretion of the local ordinary, a similar
door may be opened at any shrine frequented by large groups of pilgrims, since visits
to these holy sites are so often grace-filled moments, as people discover a
path to conversion. Every Particular Church, therefore, will be directly
involved in living out this Holy Year as an extraordinary moment of grace and
spiritual renewal. Thus the Jubilee will be celebrated both in Rome and in the
Particular Churches as a visible sign of the Church’s universal communion.
