Vatican City, August 20, 2015 (LifeSiteNews) – Pope Francis is recruiting priests to serve as missionaries with special authority for pardoning certain sins during the upcoming Year of Mercy.
The Missionaries of Mercy is “a new and original initiative by which the Pope intends to emphasize his pastoral care in a more concrete way,” according to Vatican News Service, and the Pontiff will give them “the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See.”
The Holy Father revealed his plans in April for the Year of Mercy in the Bull of Indiction (formal announcement or proclamation) Misericordiae Vultus, CatholicCulture.org reports, including mention of the missionaries’ special authority to absolve sins. These reserved sins are those resulting in excommunication and include such things as direct abortion and desecration of the Eucharist.
Applications for the Missionaries of Mercy are available online, and the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, the Vatican body organizing plans for the Jubilee Year events, is currently encouraging priests to apply for the Holy Father’s new initiative.
The Missionaries will be invited by individual diocesan bishops within their individual counties to give missions or facilitate particular initiatives organized for the Year of Mercy, which begins December 8, with a focus on the Sacrament of Reconciliation.
Pope Francis is seeking men who are “a living sign of the Father’s welcome to all those in search of his forgiveness.”
Other characteristics candidate priests will have include being “welcoming, loving, and compassionate Confessors, who are most especially attentive to the difficult situations of each person,” “inspiring preachers of Mercy,” and “heralds of the joy of forgiveness.”
Applicants must have a letter of endorsement from their bishop or religious superior.
Pope Francis will commission the first Missionaries of Mercy at St. Peter’s Basilica on February 10, Ash Wednesday of 2016, before sending them out on their assignments.