In his first official book published as Pope, in celebration of his Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis here addresses all humanity in an intimate and personal dialogue. At the center of this book is the subject closest to his heart—mercy—which has long been the cornerstone of his faith and is now the central teaching of his papacy. These pages resonate with a desire to reach all those souls who are looking for meaning in life, a road to peace and reconciliation, and the healing of physical and spiritual wounds.
In this conversation with Vatican reporter Andrea Tornielli, Francis explains—through memories from his youth and moving anecdotes from his experiences as a pastor—his reasons for proclaiming a Holy Year of Mercy. He reiterates that the Church cannot close the door on anyone—that, on the contrary, its duty is to find its way into the consciousness of people so that they can assume responsibility for, and move away from, the bad things they have done.
And to those who already count themselves among the ranks of the just, Francis counsels, “Even the Pope is a man who needs the mercy of God.”
The Name of God Is Mercy is being published in more than eighty countries around the world.
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A book on mercy might be expected to be a warm bath in kindliness, all sweetness and light, but Pope Francis, in The Name of God Is Mercy, offers a tough-minded reflection on an urgently needed public virtue, together with firm, if kindly, pushback against his critics. . . . What makes his book most moving is the way in which this man, without disrespecting his own privacy or offering false bromides of modesty, opens the sacred space of his conscience to explain how he came to center his ministry, and now his papacy, around mercy. . . . His new book comes out toward the start of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, which he inaugurated in December, in a centuries-old ritual, by unlocking the ceremonial Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica. The Church of which Jorge Mario Bergoglio became Pope, nearly three years ago, was itself a locked door. As Francis, he has, exactly, found a ‘tiny opening.’ He is pushing, and, to universal surprise, the door is beginning to swing open.
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James Carroll, The New Yorker