Misericordiae Vultus Is For Sinners

By Andrew M. Haines | April 16, 2015

Trampling Pope Francis’s Misericordiae Vultus, which announced an “Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy” for 2016, is hardly heroic. All the more if one’s commitment to “repentance” involves misrepresenting the Holy Father’s own depiction of mercy.

Christian Browne at Crisis Magazine today criticizes Francis, stating that the pope “extolls the glory of God’s mercy, but with nary a mention of the reason man needs his mercy—sin.” Either Browne didn’t read Misericordiae Vultus or wishes simply to prop up a clickbait thesis: There are exactly twenty-one mentions of “sin(s)” and twelve mentions of “sinner(s)” in the text of twenty-five paragraph-style sections. That’s over one mention per section, on average.

“Francis,” Browne continues, “wishes to share the great love and joy he experiences in discipleship with the world, and this is an admirable goal. But this zeal can inadvertently devolve into a kind of mania for good public relations . . . .”

On the face of it, blatantly and irresponsibly reporting the public (and digitally searchable) words of a pastor of the Church smacks much more of “a kind of mania” than any effort to approach the infinite mystery of God’s mercy ever could.

Cormac Cormacky

You haven’t addressed the content of Browne’s article.
http://www.ethikapolitika.org Mattias A Caro

Wait…what? How does Browne’s critique hold any water when it flat out contradicts the plain-text of the Holy Father’s writing? Browne asserted “”For Francis extolls the glory of God’s mercy, but with nary a mention of the reason man needs his mercy—sin”—when in fact he mentions sin or sinner 33 times!

Sherlock, Mr. Haines’ critique can’t be anything but elementary because Mr. Browne’s oversight is so egregious.
Deacon Boniface

There are those who are trained and nurtured to hate the Church. The more they do it the more fame and evangelisation continues. Truth can never be killed.