Belgian Catholics call for Reform

Robert Mickens casts a critical eye on some of the planned events for the Holy Year of Mercy.
To say he is not impressed might be to understate his view.
Looking at two events, the commissioning of ‘missionaries of mercy’ and the displaying of the bodies of Saint Leopold Mandić and Saint Padre Pio of Pietrelcina for public veneration he says “Both of them are aimed, fundamentally, at one thing — getting people to go back to confession, a practice most Catholics gave up a long, long time ago. …… this is one verdict of the “sensus fidelium” that it seems the pope does not want to acknowledge.”
The Holy Year of Mercy was announced “at a time when the world has never been more aware of its divisions or more uncertain about how to resolve its seemingly irresolvable conflicts and heal its apparently incurable wounds; when it has never been so incapable of achieving peace and bringing about reconciliation.
The Holy Year is the pope’s attempt to help the world — but even more so the church — find the solution to this impossible situation. And he is convinced that it will only be done when people allow themselves to be healed by God’s mercy and then, in turn, offer it to others; when they allow themselves to be forgiven and, in turn, begin forgiving others.”

Mickens states that most reasonable Catholics — Italians included — disagree with the need for such props and gimmicks the jubilee committee is using to promote the Holy Year.”