Cardinal DiNardo to open the “Holy Doors of Mercy” welcoming the Jubilee Year of Mercy
December 13, 2015
HOUSTON – Earlier this year, Pope
Francis declared that the Catholic Church
would celebrate the Year of Mercy, an
Extraordinary Jubilee. In announcing this
special year, the Pope said that “Mercy
is the very foundation of the Church’s
life. All of her pastoral activity should be
caught up in the tenderness she makes present
to believers; nothing in her preaching and in
her witness to the world can be lacking in
mercy” (Misericordiae Vultus, n. 10).
The Year of Mercy officially
began on Tuesday, Dec. 8, 2015, when the Holy
Father ceremoniously opened the “Holy
Door” at St. Peter’s Basilica,
and will conclude on November 20, 2016.
This Sunday, Dec. 13., 2015, Daniel
Cardinal DiNardo will perform the same
simple, but richly significant ceremony when
he opens the “Holy Door of Mercy”
for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The
ceremony will take place at 11 a.m. at the
Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart, 1111 St.
Joseph Pkwy., Houston.
Additionally, Cardinal DiNardo will open
the “Holy Door of Mercy” at St.
Mary Cathedral Basilica in Galveston, the
Mother Church of Texas, at 5 p.m. on
Saturday, Dec. 12. Other Pilgrim Parishes
with a Holy Door for this Year of Mercy are:
St. Bernadette, Our Lady of Guadalupe in
Houston, Our Lady of Lavang, St. Francis of
Assisi, St. Ignatius in Spring and St. Teresa
in Sugar Land.
Pope Francis said
that upon opening, the “Holy Door will
become a Door of Mercy through which anyone
who enters will experience the love of God
who consoles, pardons, and installs
hope.” (Misericordiae Vultus n. 3)
Pope Francis instituted the Jubilee
year in the document “Misericordiae
Vultus” (“The Face of
Mercy”). In this document, the pope
identifies the Church’s primary task as
introducing the faithful to contemplate the
great mystery of God’s mercy by
reflecting on the life of Jesus and to
imitate him by being “merciful like the
Father”.
“The Jubilee
Year of Mercy is a time set aside by our Holy
Father Pope Francis to allow the great loving
kindness of the Lord to visit us anew and
transform us into disciples who have been
seized by mercy and live to share it!”
said Cardinal DiNardo.
Throughout
the year, Catholic churches, schools and
social ministry organizations will host
events and service projects focused on
participating in and adopting God’s
mercy.
Works of mercy can be as
simple as giving a drink to someone who is
thirsty, visiting the sick, volunteering,
giving comfort to someone who is suffering or
forgiving a person for something they have
done.
As Cardinal DiNardo said,
“In performing works of mercy we
pattern our life after Christ and respond to
the mercy of Our Lord through His
Church”.
For more
information about the Year of Mercy, the Holy
Doors of Mercy and Year of Mercy Pilgrimages,
visit htt
p://www.archgh.org/yearofmercy/.
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The Archdiocese of Galveston- Houston serves 1.7 million Catholics in 10 counties.
It is the largest Roman Catholic diocese in Texas and the 5th largest in the United States.