MISERICORDIA VULTUS AND THE CONTEXTS FOR THE JUBILEE YEAR OF MERCY

Abstract

The fundamental purpose of declaring the Jubilee Year of Mercy is that mercy might become more visible, first of all, as a free gift from God, and secondly as a Christian mission. On March 13th 2015, Pope Francis I, at the second anniversary of his election as the 266^th successor of Saint Peter, announced that he would be convoking the Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy. It began in December 8th 2015, the feast of the Immaculate Conception to end on 20th November 2016, the Solemnity of Christ the King. In our time when humanity is deeply wounded and needs the medicine of God’s mercy to be healed and restored, this work, taking off from the Bull of Indiction- Misericordia Vultus, studies the various contexts for a deeper expression of the Jubilee Year of Mercy so that humanity can come into a more intimate and personal dialogue with the subject of divine mercy.