Vatican cardinal cautions against sentimental ‘mercy without reason’

March 15, 2017

Addressing a course on the internal forum, Cardinal Mauro Piacenza, the Penitentiary Major of the Apostolic Penitentiary, reflected on the fruits of the extraordinary jubilee year of mercy.

Two of the fruits, he said on March 14, are “the proximity of mercy as a most important way to experience the closeness of God” and the importance of encounters with the poor amid an individual and narcissistic culture.

Cardinal Piacenza offered three post-jubilee pastoral perspectives: the importance of “missionary conversion,” a fidelity that embraces the works of charity, and “formation,” since “mercy without reason risks being reduced to sentimental experience.”

 

---

For all current news, visit our News home page.

---

 
Further information:

• Quali orizzonti per il dopo giubileo (L’Osservatore Romano, p. 8)