Gulf Pine Catholic

Volume 42, Issue 5 www.gulfpinecatholic.com November 8, 2024 G ulf P ine C atholic Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Biloxi Pope to open Holy Door at Rome prison at beginning of Jubilee 2025 BY JUSTIN MCLELLAN Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY ( CNS ) -- Two days after open- ing the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Holy Year 2025 , Pope Francis will travel to a Rome prison to open a Holy Door as a “tangible sign of the message of hope” for people in prisons around the world, the Vatican announced. The pope will go Dec. 26 to Rebibbia prison on the outskirts of Rome, “a symbol of all the prisons dis- persed throughout the world,” to deliver a message of hope to prisoners, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization’s sec- tion for new evangelization and the chief organizer of the Holy Year 2025 , announced at a news conference Oct. 28. Pope Francis will open the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica Dec. 24. He will then open the Holy Doors at the major basilicas of St. John Lateran Dec. 29, St. Mary Major Jan. 1 and St. Paul Outside the Walls Jan. 5. In his “bull of indiction,” the document formally proclaiming the Holy Year 2025 , Pope Francis wrote that during the Holy Year he will have close to his heart “prisoners who, deprived of their freedom, feel daily the harshness of detention and its restrictions, lack of affection and, in more than a few cases, lack of respect for their persons.” In the document, the pope also called on govern- ments to “undertake initiatives aimed at restoring hope” for incarcerated persons during the Holy Year, such as expanding forms of amnesty and social rein- tegration programs. Archbishop Fisichella announced that the Vatican had signed an agreement with Italy’s minister of jus- tice and the government commissioner for Rome to implement reintegration programs for incarcerated individuals by involving their participation in activi- ties during the Jubilee Year. The archbishop also outlined the schedule of cul- tural offerings leading up to the Jubilee Year, during which the city of Rome estimates that 30 million peo- ple will visit the Italian capital. SEE VATICAN JUBILEE PLANS, PAGE 13 Archbishop Rino Fisichella, pro-prefect of the Di- castery for Evangelization’s section for new evan- gelization and the chief organizer of the Holy Year 2025 , presents the official mascot of the Jubilee Year during a news conference at the Vatican Oct. 28. CNS photo/Justin McLellan Only love will save humanity, pope says in encyclical on Sacred Heart BY CAROL GLATZ Catholic News Service VATICAN CITY ( CNS ) -- A world that has become “heartless” and indifferent to greed and war, and a Catholic Church in need of revitalizing its mis- sionary joy need to open themselves up to Christ’s infinite love, Pope Francis wrote. By contemplating Jesus’ Sacred Heart, the faithful can be filled with the “living water that can heal the hurt we have caused, strengthen our ability to love and serve others, and inspire us to journey together toward a just, solidary and fraternal world,” the pope wrote in his encyclical, ʽDilexit nos’ ( ‘He loved us’ ): on the Human and Divine Love of the Heart of Jesus Christ.” The Vatican released the 28,000-word text Oct. 24. While it is the pope’s fourth encyclical, he wrote that it is meant to be understood in tandem with his previous two encyclicals, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home” and “Fratelli Tutti, on Fraternity and Social Friendship.” “The present document can help us see that the teaching of the social encyclicals … is not unrelated to our encounter with the love of Jesus Christ,” he A painting by Pompeo Batoni of the Sacred Heart of Jesus from 1767 is displayed in an ornate frame inside the Jesuit Church of the Gesù in Rome, Oct. 22. CNS photo/Lola Gomez wrote. “For it is by drinking of that same love that we become capable of forging bonds of fraternity, of rec- ognizing the dignity of each human being, and of working together to care for our common home.” The pope had said in June, the month the church traditionally dedicates to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, that he was going to release a document in the fall on the devotion to “illuminate the path of ecclesial renewal, but also to say something significant to a world that seems to have lost its heart.” The encyclical includes numerous reflections from the Bible, previous magisterial texts and the writings of saints and his fellow Jesuits, to re-propose to the whole church the centuries-old devotion. Since 1899, there have been four papal encyclicals and numerous papal texts dedicated to the Sacred Heart -- a symbol of Jesus’ infinite love, which moves the faithful to love one another. “In the deepest fiber of our being, we were made to love and to be loved,” the pope wrote. SEE POPE ENCYCLICAL, PAGE 12