Pope kicks off special Jubilee year of mercy

Yahoo – AFP, Angus MacKinnon, 8 Dec 2015

Pope Francis opens a "Holy Door" at St Peter's basilica to mark the start of the Jubilee
 Year of Mercy at the Vatican, on December 8, 2015 (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Vatican City (AFP) - Uttering a centuries-old command, Pope Francis on Tuesday opened a "Holy Door" of St Peter's basilica to kick off an extraordinary Jubilee year, while urging his Church to reach out to the modern world.

"This is the door of the Lord. Open to me the gates of justice," the Argentinian pontiff said before being helped up three marble steps to push the giant bronze doors open.

In a break with tradition that reflected Francis's modernising instincts, the order to open the doors was delivered in Italian rather than Latin.

The 78-year-old then paused on the threshold of the Renaissance basilica for two minutes of silent prayer before walking inside in an act to be carried out by millions of pilgrims before the Jubilee - a special year of remission of sins and universal pardon - closes next November.

Francis was followed gingerly through the door by his frail predecessor, the now-retired Benedict XVI, 88, and by hundreds of cardinals, bishops and male and female members of religious orders.

Clutching a walking stick in his right hand and looking extremely pale, Benedict was helped into the basilica on the arm of his assistant Georg Ganswein.

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI passes the "Holy Door" opened by Pope Francis at

 St Peter's basilica to mark the start of the Jubilee Year of Mercy, on December 8,

2015 in the Vatican (AFP Photo/Vincenzo Pinto)

Amid heightened security following recent terror attacks around the world, the Vatican said 70,000 pilgrims had packed into St Peter's Square and surrounding streets to watch Francis open the usually bricked-up portal of the Renaissance basilica.

Many had tears rolling down their cheeks or eyes clenched shut in prayer as Francis ordered the door open for the first time since the last Jubilee, in 2000.

Among them were Polish friends Teresa and Carolina, who were back in Rome after coming for John Paul II's Jubilee 15 years ago. "What will I change to mark the Jubilee? I think I'll give some change to a homeless beggar that I usually ignore," confided Teresa.

Francis used his homily to underline the significance of his decision to start the Jubilee on the 50th anniversary of the end of the Second Vatican Council, a gathering of bishops credited with a modernisation of the Church that Francis is attempting to emulate.

Tuesday also marked the 1,000th day of Francis' pontificate.

For Francis's predecessor, the German-born Joseph Ratzinger, Tuesday's ceremony was a rare public outing.

The Emeritus Pope, as he is officially known, has lived in seclusion within the Vatican since retiring in 2013 as failing health left him incapable of running an institution beset by the clerical sex abuse scandal and internecine bickering in its upper echelons.

Tuesday's celebrations were rounded off in the evening when images by some of the world's greatest environmental photographers including Brazil's Sebastiao Salgado and Yann Arthus-Bertrand of France were projected onto the facade and dome of Saint Peter's.

The giant, moving photos depicting environmental issues such as endangered species, desertification and overconsumption were an initiative linked to the ongoing COP21 global climate conference in Paris.

Pilgrims attend a papal mass in St Peter's square for the start of the Jubilee

Year of Mercy, on December 8, 2015 in Vatican (AFP Photo/Andreas Solaro)

Mercy not judgement

Francis called the Jubilee, which runs until November 20, 2016, with the express goal of changing the way the Church is perceived by the faithful, lapsed believers and the rest of the world.

"How much wrong we do to God and his grace when we speak of sins being punished by his judgement before we speak of their being forgiven by his mercy," he said Tuesday.

"We have to put mercy before judgement... Let us set aside all fear and dread, for these do not befit men and women who are loved."

In a surprise move reflecting that aim, Francis announced in September that for the duration of the Jubilee, priests would be given special dispensation to absolve women who have had abortions.

In addition, some 800 priests around the world are to be designated "missionaries of mercy" tasked with encouraging higher levels of confession amongst believers.

Those involved have been selected for their ability to preach well, understand human frailty and ensure that the confessional is not experienced "like a torture chamber" as the pope has put it.

Francis's push for a less judgmental, more understanding Church has encountered fierce resistance from traditionalists opposed to any relaxation of teaching on hot-button subjects such as homosexuality, divorce and unmarried cohabitation.

Traditionally, Catholics were expected to make a pilgrimage to Rome to benefit from the indulgences on offer to the faithful who pass through the Holy Doors during Jubilee years.

Francis has effectively done away with this custom by ordering cathedrals around the world to open their own Holy Doors. That will happen on Sunday, when Francis himself opens the door at one of Rome's major churches, St John Lateran.

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"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Loose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Paddle wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.) - (Text version)

"...  1 - Spirituality

Number one: Spirituality. The systems of spiritual design on your planet are starting to change. This is not telling you that certain ones are going to go away. They're simply going to change. Some of the largest spiritual systems, which you would call organized religion on the planet, are shifting. They're going to shift away from that which is authority on the outside to authority on the inside. It will eventually be a different way of worship, slowly changing the rules while keeping the basic doctrine the same.

The doctrine of the Christ has always been to find the God inside. The teachings were clear. The examples of the miracles were given as an example of what humans could do, not to set a man up for worship as a God. So when that has been absorbed, the teaching of the Christ can remain the teaching of the Christ. It simply changes the interpretation.

The teachings of the great prophets of the Middle East (all related to each other) are about unity and love. So once the holy words are redefined with new wisdom, the Human changes, not the words of the prophets. In fact, the prophets become even more divinely inspired and their wisdom becomes even more profound.

You're going to lose a pope soon. I have no clock. Soon to us can mean anything to you. The one who replaces him may surprise you, for his particular organization will be in survival mode at that point in time. That is to say that fewer and fewer are interested in starting the priesthood. Fewer and fewer young people are interested in the organization, and the new pope must make changes to keep his church alive. That means that his organization will remain, but with a more modern look at what truly is before all of you in a new energy. It is not the fall of the church. It is instead the recalibration of the divinity inside that would match the worship that goes on. It's a win-win situation. The new pope will have a difficult time, since the old guard will still be there. There could even be an assassination attempt, such is the way the old energy dies hard. That is number one. Watch for it. It's a change in the way spiritual systems work. It's a realignment of spiritual systems that resound to a stronger truth that is Human driven, rather than prophet driven. ..."

“…  3 - Longer Life is Going to Happen, But…

Here is one that is a review. We keep bringing it up because Humans don't believe it. If you're going to start living longer, there are those who are frightened that there will be overpopulation. You've seen the way it is so far, and the geometric progression of mathematics is absolute and you cannot change it. So if you look at the population of the earth and how much it has shifted in the last two decades, it's frightening to you. What would change that progression?

The answer is simple, but requires a change in thinking. The answer is a civilization on the planet who understands a new survival scenario. Instead of a basic population who has been told to have a lot of children to enhance the race [old survival], they begin to understand the logic of a new scenario. The Akashic wisdom of the ages will start to creep in with a basic survival scenario shift. Not every single woman will look at herself and say, "The clock is ticking," but instead can say, "I have been a mother 14 times in a row. I'm going to sit this one out." It's a woman who understands that there is no loss or guilt in this, and actually feels that the new survival attribute is to keep the family small or not at all! Also, as we have said before, even those who are currently ignorant of population control will figure out what is causing babies to be born [Kryon joke].

Part of the new Africa will be education and healing, and eventually a zero population growth, just like some of the first-world nations currently have. Those who are currently tied to a spiritual doctrine will actually have that doctrine changed (watch for it) regarding Human birth. Then they will be able to make free choice that is appropriate even within the establishment of organized religion. You see, things are going to change where common sense will say, "Perhaps it would help the planet if I didn't have children or perhaps just one child." Then the obvious, "Perhaps I can exist economically better and be wiser with just one. It will help the one!" Watch for these changes. For those of you who are steeped in the tradition of the doctrines and would say that sounds outrageously impossible, I give you the new coming pope [Kryon smile]. For those of you who feel that uncontrolled procreation is inevitable, I encourage you to see statistics you haven't seen or didn't care to look at yet about what first-world countries have already accomplished on their own, without any mandates. It's already happening. That was number three.….”