(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has said the Jubilee of Mercy will be a “good opportunity for increasing the collaboration between pastors and the laity in the mission of affectionately and tenderly caring for the sick and dying.”
His words were conveyed in a message sent to Manuel Martin Sjöberg, President of the Federación de Servicios de sacerdotales Urgencia y Nocturno (Federation of Priestly Emergency Services).
The society was founded in 1952 in Cordoba, Argentina, to help those in need receive the sacraments, especially when it is difficult to find a priest.
Pope Francis also quoted from Misericordiae Vultus, the Bull of Indiction announcing the Year of Mercy, which urges people to be close to those who are suffering “so they can feel the warmth of our presence, our friendship and our fraternity.”
Pope Francis thanked the volunteers of the association for their sixty years of performing “works of Christian mercy”, noting “we will be judged” on the corporal and spiritual works of mercy, because in “each of these ‘smallest ones’, Christ himself is present.”