The pilgrims received in the Vatican belong to ecclesial associations, congregations, and movements whose different charisms include closeness and assistance to the poor, to migrants, to the sick, to prisoners, to people with disabilities.
Referring to the 2015 Bull of Indiction with which he called for the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, he said “I hoped that, in the perspective of the new evangelization which the world so badly needs, ‘the theme of mercy’ would be proposed again and again with new enthusiasm and renewed pastoral action.”
“It is absolutely essential for the Church and for the credibility of her message that she herself live and testify to mercy. Her language and her gestures must transmit mercy, so as to touch the hearts of all people and inspire them once more to find the road that leads to the Father,” he quoted.
Urging those present to continue to find ways to meet each other to pray and share, to share their difficulties and experiences, as well as their joys and thanksgiving, the Pope invited those present to keep this mercy of which they bear witness alive.
Finally, in this time of preparation for Christmas, the Pope proposed the contemplation of the crib: “It is an invitation to feel, to touch the poverty that the Son of God chose for Himself in His Incarnation.”
Implicitly, he concluded, it is an appeal to follow Jesus on the path of humility which leads from the manger in Bethlehem to the Cross: an appeal to meet and serve Him with mercy towards our most needy brothers and sisters. Vatican News Department
