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Jubilee Year of Mercy

Pope Francis called, from December 8, 2015 – November 20, 2016, an Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy to direct our attention and actions “on mercy so that we may become a more effective sign of the Father’s actions in our lives . . . a time when the witness of believers might grow stronger and more effective.”

The Holy Father commissioned, on Ash Wednesday 2016, the Missionaries of Mercy. He said on that occasion:

“During Lent of this Holy Year, I intend to send out Missionaries of Mercy. They will be a sign of the Church’s maternal solicitude for the People of God, enabling them to enter the profound richness of this mystery so fundamental to the faith. There will be priests to whom I will grant the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See, so that the breadth of their mandate as confessors will be even clearer. They will be, above all, living signs of the Father’s readiness to welcome those in search of his pardon. They will be missionaries of mercy because they will be facilitators of a truly human encounter, a source of liberation, rich with responsibility for overcoming obstacles and taking up the new life of Baptism again. They will be led in their mission by the words of the Apostle: ‘For God has consigned all men to disobedience, that he may have mercy upon all’ (Rom 11:32). Everyone, in fact, without exception, is called to embrace the call to mercy. May these Missionaries live this call with the assurance that they can fix their eyes on Jesus, ‘the merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God’ (Heb 2:17).”

— Pope Francis, Bull of Indication Misericordiae Vultus

Appointment and Supervision

The appointment of a Missionary is exclusively reserved to the Pope. The Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization is responsible for watching over the exercise of their ministry and for receiving from priests, with the recommendation of their respective Bishop or religious superior, new applications.

Extension of Mandate

At the close of the Jubilee of Mercy, on November 20, 2016, Pope Francis indefinitely extended the mandate of the Missionaries of Mercy provided the Missionaries themselves, in conversation with their religious superiors, were willing. Pope Francis wrote:

“An experience of grace lived out by the Church with great effectiveness in the Jubilee Year has certainly been the service of the Missionaries of Mercy. Their pastoral activity sought to emphasize that God places no obstacles in the way of those who seek him with a contrite heart, because he goes out to meet everyone like a father. I have received many testimonies of joy from those who encountered the Lord once more in the sacrament of Confession. Let us not miss the opportunity to live our faith also as an experience of reconciliation. Today too, the Apostle urges us: ‘Be reconciled to God’ (2 Cor 5:20), so that all who believe can discover the power of love which makes us ‘a new creation’ (2 Cor 5:17).”

“I thank every Missionary of Mercy for this valuable service aimed at rendering effective the grace of forgiveness. This extraordinary ministry does not end with the closing of the Holy Door. I wish it to continue until further notice as a concrete sign that the grace of the Jubilee remains alive and effective the world over. As a direct expression of my concern and closeness to the Missionaries of Mercy in this period, the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization will supervise them and find the most suitable forms for the exercise of this valuable ministry.”

— His Holiness Pope Francis, Apostolic Letter Misericordia et misera

Characteristics:

As the various papal texts indicate, Missionaries of Mercy are to be:

1. Living signs and agents of the Father’s welcome to all those in search of his forgiveness;
2. Heralds of the joy of forgiveness and inspiring preachers of mercy;
3. Welcoming, loving, and compassionate Confessors, especially attentive to the difficult situations of each person.

Mandate

The role of Missionaries of Mercy comprises three primary aspects: preaching about mercy, making that mercy as available as possible to as many as possible through the Sacrament of Confession, and becoming ever more an icon of the Father’s merciful love and the Church’s maternal compassionate solicitude.

The Missionaries of Mercy have been given two special faculties that are usually unavailable to priests. First, they are not be limited in geographic location in terms of hearing confessions. Second, they are able to absolve sins in five cases otherwise reserved to the Holy See.

Reserved Sins

The Holy Father has granted the Missionaries the authority to absolve the ecclesiastical penalties and guilt associated with the following five crimes/sins, normally reserved to the Apostolic See:

1. Profaning the Holy Eucharist by taking the Eucharistic species away or keeping them for a sacrilegious purpose
2. Using physical force against the Pope
3. Absolving a priest who has sought to forgive someone in confession with whom he has committed a sexual sin. 
4. Absolving a priest who has directly violated the sacramental seal of the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation, revealing something a penitent communicated to him. 
5. Absolving someone who has recorded with a technical device what a priest or penitent has said in the Sacrament of Confession (whether real or simulated, meaning whether it was an actual confession or whether someone was impersonating a priest or penitent), or absolving someone who has published and spread such a recording through the means of social communication.

Relationship to Local Bishops

Missionaries are appointed along with a recommendation letter from their bishop or religious superior. Missionaries may also be invited by individual Diocesan Bishops to give missions or facilitate specific initiatives with a particular attention given to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Pope Francis wrote:

“I ask my brother Bishops to invite and welcome these Missionaries so that they can be, above all, persuasive preachers of mercy. May individual dioceses organize ‘missions to the people’ in such a way that these Missionaries may be heralds of joy and forgiveness. Bishops are asked to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation with their people so that the time of grace made possible by the Jubilee year makes it possible for many of God’s sons and daughters to take up once again the journey to the Father’s house. May pastors, especially during the liturgical season of Lent, be diligent in calling back the faithful ‘to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace’ (Heb 4:16).”

— His Holiness Pope Francis, Bull of Indication Misericordiae Vultus

Care for Fellow Priests

Every priest is called by ordination to be an “ambassador of Christ” with regard to the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Holy Father’s mandate of the Missionaries of Mercy, in a special way, provides for an outreach to brother priests, since several of the reserved sins that Missionaries have been given the faculties to lift concern those only priests, or predominantly priests, might commit. This indicates a special papal solicitude for Missionaries to be instruments of reconciliation for their priest brothers.