• Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
The Texas Catholic
The Texas Catholic

Dallas, Texas

Today is Wednesday, March 22, 2023
  • Home
  • Diocese
  • Bishop Burns
  • Synod
  • Columnists
  • Revista Catolica
  • Vatican
  • Subscribe
  • Follow
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Linkedin
    • Instagram
Home
Pope Francis

Forgive others and find peace, pope says

Friday, August 5, 2016

Pope Francis enters the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy, Aug. 4. (CNS photo/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

Pope Francis enters the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels in Assisi, Italy, Aug. 4. (CNS photo/L’Osservatore Romano via Reuters)

By Catholic News Service

ASSISI, Italy — Celebrating how God’s mercy has been experienced for 800 years in a tiny stone church in Assisi, Pope Francis said people need to experience God’s forgiveness and start learning how to forgive others.

“Too many people are caught up in resentment and harbor hatred because they are incapable of forgiving. They ruin their own lives and the lives of those around them rather than finding the joy of serenity and peace,” the pope said Aug. 4 during an afternoon visit to the Basilica of St. Mary of the Angels.

Before speaking about the importance of confession and forgiveness, Pope Francis set a bouquet of red and white roses on the altar and prayed silently for 10 minutes in the Portiuncola, a stone chapel in the middle of the basilica.

The abandoned ninth-century Benedictine chapel was entrusted to St. Francis of Assisi in the early 1200s. When St. Francis felt God calling him to rebuild the church, he first thought he meant the little chapel.

St. Francis restored the chapel in 1207 and two years later he founded his religious order there. The chapel is so important to the Franciscan family that when it was time to build a larger church, the new basilica was built around the chapel, leaving it intact.

But the reason Pope Francis visited Aug. 4 and the reason thousands travel there each August is the “Pardon of Assisi,” a plenary indulgence offered to visitors who are sincerely sorry for their sins, go to confession, receive the Eucharist, recite the Creed and pray for the intentions of the pope as a sign of their unity with the church.

In Franciscan history, it was God who authorized St. Francis to offer the Assisi indulgence — a reduction of the punishment one rightly should endure because of sins committed. Kneeling in prayer, St. Francis asked the Lord to grant full pardon to those who came to the Portiuncola and confessed their sins. The Lord agreed. The next day — Aug. 2, 1216 — Pope Honorius III agreed.

Although it was not written in the pope’s prepared text or mentioned in the Vatican schedule for the visit, Pope Francis ended his talk in Assisi asking the Franciscan friars and bishops present to go to one of the confessionals and be available to offer the sacrament of reconciliation. He put on a purple stole and heard confessions before making his scheduled visit to Franciscans in the nearby infirmary.

Earlier, Pope Francis told those gathered before the Portiuncola that St. Francis could ask for nothing greater than “the gift of salvation, eternal life and unending joy” for the townsfolk of Assisi.

“Forgiveness — pardon — is surely our direct route to that place in heaven” that Jesus promised his followers, the pope said. “What a great gift the Lord has given us in teaching us to forgive and, in this way, to touch the Father’s mercy!”

In his brief remarks, Pope Francis offered a reflection on the parable of “the unforgiving servant” from St. Matthew’s Gospel.

Like that servant, the pope said, many Christians feel they have a debt to God that they can never repay. “When we kneel before the priest in the confessional, we do exactly what that servant did. We say, ‘Lord, have patience with me.'”

And the Lord does, he said. Over and over again people confess the same sins and each time, God forgives them.

“The problem, unfortunately, comes whenever we have to deal with a brother or sister who has even slightly offended us,” Pope Francis said.

Again, many people act like the servant in the parable who, after pleading for leniency, goes to those who owe him and demand they pay immediately.

“Here we encounter all the drama of our human relationships,” the pope said. “When we are indebted to others, we expect mercy; but when others are indebted to us, we demand justice.

“This is a reaction unworthy of Christ’s disciples and is not the sign of a Christian style of life,” Pope Francis said. “Jesus teaches us to forgive and to do so without limit.”

God’s forgiveness is “like a caress,” he said, “so different from the gesture” of a threatening fist accompanied by the words, “You’ll pay for that!”

The pardon St. Francis preached at the Portiuncola, Pope Francis said, is as necessary as ever.

“In this Holy Year of Mercy, it becomes ever clearer that the path of forgiveness can truly renew the church and the world,” he said. “To offer today’s world the witness of mercy is a task from which none of us can feel exempt.”

  • Tags
  • Pope Francis
  • The Texas Catholic
Facebook Twitter Google+ LinkedIn Pinterest
Next article Mercy received must be mercy shared, pope says
Previous article The impact of simple acts of kindness

Related Posts

To be an apostle is to serve, not move up church's hierarchy, pope says Pope Francis
Wednesday, March 15, 2023

To be an apostle is to serve, not move up church's hierarchy, pope says

Liturgical elements must foster prayer, sense of communion, pope says Pope Francis
Wednesday, March 15, 2023

Liturgical elements must foster prayer, sense of communion, pope says

Pope from 'ends of the earth' brings new style to Rome Pope Francis
Friday, March 10, 2023

Pope from 'ends of the earth' brings new style to Rome

Texas Catholic Classics

A look at the five Dallas law enforcement officers who gave their lives while protecting citizens during a mass shooting in downtown Dallas in July 2016.

 

How a child with special needs inspired a high school volleyball team, community and a family who heeded God’s call to protect life.

 

After a young runner collapsed at a Dallas marathon, grace and providence unfolded for those involved in the valiant effort to help her.

   

In the summer of 2016, 50 students and 25 chaperones from Dallas Catholic high schools traveled to Nicaragua for a 10-day mission trip.

 

Early on a November morning, Kenndrick Mendieta bounded from the gym at Cristo Rey Dallas College Prep toward the campus’ athletic fields as clouds lifted on a fresh new day.

 

Subscribe

Get the award-winning Texas Catholic delivered to your door. Use the menu below to subscribe now.


Subscription length




 

Photo Gallery

Click here to find your favorite Texas Catholic photographs.

The Texas Catholic Newspaper

Catholic Diocese of Dallas
Michael Gresham, Editor

3725 Blackburn Street
Dallas, Texas 75219
(214) 379-2800

Our Affiliated Sites

Texas Catholic Youth

Revista Católica

Legal and Other

Contact us

Terms of service

Privacy policy

Site map

Site powered by TexasCatholicMedia

© 2013-2019 The Texas Catholic Publishing Company. All rights reserved.