WHAT IS A BULL OF INDICTION? – POPE FRANCIS TO MAKE ONE-DAY TRIP TO SARAJEVO – HOLY FATHER’S LITURGICAL CALENDAR: APRIL – JUNE – PAPAL ACADEMIES LAUNCH ANTI-TRAFFICKING WEBSITE

I received an email asking me to explain the meaning of the words Bull of Indiction – words mentioned often this past weekend in news stories when the official Bull for the forthcoming Jubilee of Mercy was read. Read on for the answer…..

WHAT IS A BULL OF INDICTION?

During his March 13 surprise announcement of the upcoming extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy, Pope Francis said the official proclamation of this Jubilee would take place with the publication of the Bull of Indiction on Saturday 11 April, at 5.30 pm in St. Peter’s Basilica. (a Getty image)

That took place, of course, last Saturday in St. Peter’s Basilica when Pope Francis celebrated the First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, telling the faithful that there will be a Jubilee “because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.”

Vespers followed a reading of part of the papal Bull of Indiction for the Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy that will open on December 8, 2015 and conclude on November 20, 2016. To one side of the Holy Door, the Regent of the Papal Household, Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza, as apostolic protonotary, read various extracts from the official document convoking the extraordinary Holy Year.

The Bull of Indiction was then handed to the four cardinal archpriests of the papal basilicas of Rome: Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican; Cardinal Agostino Vallini, archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran; Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls; and Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

In addition, to expressing his wish that the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy be celebrated in Rome and throughout the world, Pope Francis gave a copy of the Bull – thus presenting it symbolically to all bishops – to Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; to Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; and to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

What is a Bull of Indiction?

The term bull (from the Latin bulla = bubble or, more generally, a rounded object) originally indicated the metal capsule used to protect the wax seal attached with a cord to a document of particular importance, to attest to its authenticity and, as a consequence, its authority. Over time, the term began to be used first to indicate the seal, then the document itself, so that nowadays it is used for all papal documents of special importance that bear, or at least traditionally would have borne, the Pontiff’s seal.

The Bull for the Indiction (formal announcement or proclamation) of a jubilee, for instance in the case of an extraordinary Holy Year, aside from indicating its time, with the opening and closing dates and the main ways in which it will be implemented, constitutes the fundamental document for recognising the spirit in which it is announced, and the intentions and the outcomes hoped for by the Pontiff, who invokes it for the Church.

POPE FRANCIS TO MAKE ONE-DAY TRIP TO SARAJEVO

(VIS) – On June 6 Pope Francis will make an apostolic trip to Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina, departing Rome’s Fiumicino airport at 7.30 a.m., and arriving at Sarajevo International Airport an hour later. A welcome ceremony will be held in the square adjacent to the presidential palace, during which he will meet with the presidency of the country and the local authorities, to whom he will address his greetings. (Lonely Planet image)

At 11 a.m., in the Kosevo Stadium, he will celebrate Holy Mass, after which he will transfer to the apostolic nunciature for lunch with bishops. Following a short rest, at 4.20 p.m. he will meet with priests, men and women religious, and seminarians. An hour later he will participate in an ecumenical and interreligiouseeting in the International Centre for Franciscan students.

The Holy Father will meet with young people at 6.30 p.m in the “John Paul II” diocesan youth centre, and at around 8 p.m. will return to the airport to embark on his return flight for Rome, where he is expected to arrive at 9.20 p.m.

The official website for the papal visit: http://www.papa.ba/en/

HOLY FATHER’S LITURGICAL CALENDAR: APRIL – JUNE

The Master of Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff, Msgr. Guido Marini has issued the following calendar of celebrations to be presided by Pope Francis from April to June 2015: (news.va)

APRIL 2015

26    IV Sunday of Easter :   St. Peter’s Basilica, 9:30 a.m. – Holy Mass with priestly ordinations to be followed at 12 noon by the Regina Coeli.

MAY 2015

3      V Sunday of Easter:  Pastoral visit to the parish “Santa Maria Regina Pacis” in Ostia, an ancient coastal town outside Rome, 4:00 p.m.

12    Tuesday:    St. Peter’s Basilica, 5:30 p.m. – Holy Mass for the opening of the General Assembly of Caritas Internationalis

17    VI Sunday of Easter:   St. Peter’s Square, 10:00 a.m. – Canonizations of Giovanna Emilia De Villeneuve,  Maria Cristina dell’Immacolata Concezione Brando, Maria Alfonsina Danil Ghattas and Maria di Gesù Crocifisso Baouardy.

24   Pentacost Sunday:   St. Peter’s Basilica, 10.00 a.m. – Holy Mass.

JUNE 2015

4  Thursday, Solemnity of the Blessed Body and Blood of Christ:  St John Lateran Square, 7:00 p.m. –  Corpus Domini Mass and Procession to Saint Mary Major Basilica and Eucharistic Blessing

6  Saturday:   Apostolic visit to Sarajevo (Bosnia)

21-22 Sunday/Monday :  Pastoral visit to the northern Italian city of Turin

25  Saturday:  Hall of the Consistory, 10:00 a.m. – Consistory for a number of canonization causes 29  Monday:  St Peter’s Basilica, 9:30 a.m. – Pallium Mass

PAPAL ACADEMIES LAUNCH ANTI-TRAFFICKING WEBSITE 

(Vatican Radio) The Pontifical Science Academies have launched a new website aimed at combatting the worldwide scourge of human trafficking. The website builds on the success achieved over the past year by the ecumenical Global Freedom Network, including a joint declaration against modern slavery signed by Pope Francis and leaders of different faith communities in countries around the world. (news.va)

The new site, www.endslavery.va includes Catholic and Anglican resources, as well as links to international anti-trafficking legislation and details of upcoming events organised by the Pontifical Academies for Sciences and Social Sciences.

JUBILEE BULL OF INDICTION, “THE FACE OF MERCY”

JUBILEE BULL OF INDICTION, “THE FACE OF MERCY”

Saturday evening at 5:30 in St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis celebrated the First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, telling the faithful that there will be a Jubilee “because this is the time for mercy. It is the favorable time to heal wounds, a time not to be weary of meeting all those who are waiting to see and to touch with their hands the signs of the closeness of God, a time to offer everyone the way of forgiveness and reconciliation.”

Vespers followed a reading of part of the papal Bull of Indiction for the Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy that will open on December 8, 2015 and conclude on November 20, 2016. To one side of the Holy Door, the Regent of the Papal Household, Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza, as apostolic protonotary, read various extracts from the official document convoking the extraordinary Holy Year

The Holy Door:

The Bull of Indiction was then handed to the four cardinal archpriests of the papal basilicas of Rome: Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican; Cardinal Agostino Vallini, archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran; Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls; and Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

In addition, to express his wish that the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy be celebrated in Rome and throughout the world, Pope Francis gave a copy of the Bull – thus presenting it symbolically to all bishops – to Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; to Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; and to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches.

Vespers:

A copy was received by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, born in Hong Kong and now secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, on behalf of all the East. The African continent was represented by Archbishop Bartolomé Adoukonou, a native of Benin and currently secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture. For the Oriental Churches, the Holy Father presented the Bull of Indiction to Msgr. Khaled Ayad Bishay of the Patriarchal Church of Alexandria of the Copts.

The 28-page Bull, titled “Misericordiae Vultus” (“The Face of Mercy”) opens with the declaration, “Jesus is the face of the Father’s mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith.”

Following is a summary in English of  the Bull:

The Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy, entitled “Misericordiae Vultus,” is made up of 25 numbered sections. Pope Francis has described the most salient features of mercy, focusing primarily on the theme of the light of Christ’s face. Mercy is not an abstract word, but rather a face to recognise, contemplate and serve. The Bull is developed in a Trinitary fashion (Nos. 6-9) and extends to a description of the Church as a credible sign of mercy: “Mercy is the very foundation of the Church’s life” (No.10).

Pope Francis indicates the salient phases of the Jubilee. The opening coincides with the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Vatican II Ecumenical Council: “The Church feels a great need to keep this event alive. With the Council, the Church entered a new phase of her history. The Council Fathers strongly perceived, as a true breath of the Holy Spirit, a need to talk about God to men and women of their time in a more accessible way. The walls which too long had made the Church a kind of fortress were torn down and the time had come to proclaim the Gospel in a new way” (No. 4). The conclusion will take place “with the liturgical Solemnity of Christ the King on 20 November 2016. On that day, as we seal the Holy Door, we shall be filled, above all, with a sense of gratitude and thanksgiving to the Most Holy Trinity for having granted us an extraordinary time of grace. We will entrust the life of the Church, all humanity, and the entire cosmos to the Lordship of Christ, asking him to pour out his mercy upon us like the morning dew, so that everyone may work together to build a brighter future.” (no.5).

A special feature of this Holy Year is the fact that it will be celebrated not only in Rome, but also in all the other dioceses of the world. The Holy Door will be opened by the Pope at St. Peter’s on 8 December, and on the following Sunday in all the Churches of the world. Another novelty is that the Pope will grant the possibility of opening the Holy Door also in Sanctuaries, where many pilgrims will go in order to pray.

Pope Francis resumes the teaching of St. John XXIII, who spoke of the “medicine of Mercy,” and of Paul VI who identified the spirituality of Vatican II with that of the Samaritan. The Bull explains, furthermore, various salient aspects of the Jubilee: firstly, the motto , “Merciful like the Father”, then the meaning of pilgrimage and above all the need for forgiveness . The theme that is particularly close to the Pope’s heart is found in section No. 15: the works of corporal and spiritual mercy are to be resumed in order to “reawaken our conscience, too often grown dull in the face of poverty. And let us enter more deeply into the heart of the Gospel where the poor have a special experience of God’s mercy”. A further indication is offered by Lent, with the sending out of the “Missionaries of Mercy” (No. 18), a new and original initiative by which the Pope intends to emphasise his pastoral care in a more concrete way. In paragraphs 20 and 21 the Pope considers the theme of the relationship between justice and mercy, showing that he does not stop at a legalistic view, but rather aims at a path that leads to merciful love.

Paragraph 19 is a powerful appeal against organised violence and against those who are “advocates and accomplices” of corruption. The Pope uses strong words to denounce this “festering wound”, and insists that during this Holy Year there must be true conversion: “This is the opportune moment to change our lives! This is the time to allow our hearts to be touched! When confronted with evil deeds, even in the face of serious crimes, it is the time to listen to the cry of innocent people who are deprived of their property, their dignity, their feelings, and even their very lives. To stick to the way of evil will only leave one deluded and sad. True life is something entirely different. God never tires of reaching out to us. He is always ready to listen, as I am too, along with my brother bishops and priests. All one needs to do is to accept the invitation to conversion and submit oneself to justice during this special time of mercy offered by the Church” (No. 19).

The granting of indulgences as a traditional theme of the Jubilee year is expressed in section No. 22. A final original aspect is offered by Pope Francis with regard to mercy as a theme shared also by Jews and Muslims: “I trust that this Jubilee year celebrating the mercy of God will foster an encounter with these religions and with other noble religious traditions; may it open us to even more fervent dialogue so that we might know and understand one another better; may it eliminate every form of closed-mindedness and disrespect, and drive out every form of violence and discrimination” (No. 23).

The Pope’s wish is that this Year, experienced also in the sharing of divine mercy, may be “dedicated to living out in our daily lives the mercy which the Father constantly extends to all of us. In this Jubilee Year, let us allow God to surprise us. He never tires of throwing open the doors of his heart and repeats that he loves us and wants to share his love with us. … In this Jubilee Year, may the Church echo the word of God that resounds strong and clear as a message and a sign of pardon, strength, aid, and love. May she never tire of extending mercy, and be ever patient in offering compassion and comfort. May the Church become the voice of every man and woman, and repeat confidently without end: ‘Be mindful of your mercy, O Lord, and your steadfast love, for they have been from of old’”.

 

VATICAN INSIDER TALKS TO MARY MCFARLAND OF JC-HEM – JUBILEE YEAR BULL OF INDICTION TO BE READ AT HOLY DOOR

VATICAN INSIDER TALKS TO MARY MCFARLAND OF JC-HEM

And you ask: What is JC-HEM?

Tune in this weekend and you’ll hear Mary McFarland explain the organization of which she is co-founder and international director  – Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins (JC-HEM). She will tell the remarkable story of how JC-HEM created distance learning for higher education in refugee camps.

Mary is my special guest this week, and we first met at the March 8 Voices of Faith event in the Vatican. Celebrated on International Woman’s Day, Voices of Faith was founded by Chantal Goetz, executive director of the Goetz Foundation, whose story you heard here a few weeks back

Mary’s stories of how many refugees, now adults, have lived in camps their entire lives is a moving one. How she and JC-HEM try to get them out of the abyss of ignorance is an even more moving tale.  So tune in this weekend and listen to Mary McFarland on Saturday or Sunday.

As you know, in the United States, you can listen to Vatican Insider on a Catholic radio station near you (there is a list of U.S. stations at www.ewtn.com) or on Sirius-XM satellite radio. If you live outside the U.S., you can listen to EWTN radio on our website home page by clicking on the right side where you see “LISTEN TO EWTN.” Vatican Insider airs Saturday mornings at 9:30 am (Eastern time) and re-airs Sundays at 4:30 pm (ET). Check for your time zone. Past shows are found in Vatican Insider archives:http://www.ewtn.com/vondemand/audio/file_index.asp?SeriesId=7096&pgnu=

JUBILEE YEAR BULL OF INDICTION TO BE READ AT HOLY DOOR

(VIS) – At 5.30 p.m. tomorrow, Saturday April 11, the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday, in St. Peter’s Basilica, the Pope will officially convoke the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy with the publication of the Bull of Indiction, “Misericordiae vultus.” The Jubilee Bull, aside from indicating the duration, opening and closing dates, and the main ways in which the Holy Year will unfold, constitutes the basic document for understanding the spirit in which it was convoked, as well as Pope Francis’ intentions and the fruit he hopes the Year will bear.

For the proclamation, the Holy Father, accompanied by the cardinals, will proceed to the entrance of the Vatican Basilica. At the side of the Holy Door, the Bull of Indiction will be handed to the four cardinal archpriests of the papal basilicas of Rome: Cardinal Angelo Comastri, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Peter in the Vatican; Cardinal Agostino Vallini, archpriest of the Basilica of St. John Lateran; Cardinal James Michael Harvey, archpriest of St. Paul’s Outside-the-Walls; and Cardinal Santos Abril y Castello, archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

To express his wish that the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy be celebrated in Rome and throughout the world, Pope Francis will consign a copy of the Bull, thus presenting it symbolically to all bishops, to Cardinal Marc Ouellet P.S.S., prefect of the Congregation for Bishops; to Cardinal Fernando Filoni, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples; and to Cardinal Leonardo Sandri, prefect of the Congregation for the Oriental Churches. A copy will be received by Archbishop Savio Hon Tai-Fai, born in Hong Kong and now secretary of the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, on behalf of all the East. The African continent will be represented by Archbishop Bartolome Adoukonou, a native of Benin and currently secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture. For the Oriental Churches, the Holy Father will present the Bull to Msgr. Khaled Ayad Bishay of the Patriarchal Church of Alexandria of the Copts.

The Regent of the Papal Household, Msgr. Leonardo Sapienza, as apostolic protonotary, will read various extracts from the official document convoking the extraordinary Holy Year. Finally, the Holy Father will preside at the celebration of First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday.

(For those wishing to follow this event live on EWTN, here is a link to the booklet that will be used for this ceremony and for the First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday that follow the publication of the Bill of Indiction: http://www.vatican.va/news_services/liturgy/libretti/2015/20150411-libretto-consegna-bolla-anno-santo.pdf)

(News.va) On March 13, the day Pope Francis surprised the world with his announcement of the Holy Year of Mercy, the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization published this explanatory note for the upcoming Holy Year, the Jubilee of Mercy:

In St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis announced today, March 13, 2015, the celebration of an “extraordinary Holy Year.” This “Jubilee of Mercy” will commence with the opening of the Holy Door in St. Peter’s on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, 2015, and will conclude on November 20, 2016 with the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. At the start of the new year, the Holy Father had stated: “This is the time of mercy. It is important that the lay faithful live it and bring it into different social environments. Go forth!”

The Jubilee announcement had been made on the second anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, during his homily for the penitential liturgy with which the Holy Father opened the “24 Hours for the Lord”. This initiative, proposed by the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, promotes throughout the world the opening of churches for an extended period of time for the purpose of inviting people to the celebration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The theme for this year has been taken from the Letter of St. Paul to the Ephesians, “God rich in mercy” (Eph 2:4).

The opening of this next Jubilee will take place on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council in 1965. This is of great significance, for it impels the Church to continue the work begun at Vatican II.

During the Jubilee, the Sunday readings for Ordinary Time will be taken from the Gospel of Luke, the one referred to as “the evangelist of mercy”. Dante Alighieri describes him as “scriba mansuetudinis Christi”, “narrator of the meekness of Christ”. There are many well-known parables of mercy presented in the Gospel of Luke: the lost sheep, the lost coin, the merciful father.

The official and solemn announcement of the Holy Year will take place with the public proclamation of the Bolla in front of the Holy Door on (the vigil of) Divine Mercy Sunday, the Feast instituted by Saint John Paul II and celebrated on the Sunday after Easter.

In the ancient Hebrew tradition, the Jubilee Year, which was celebrated every 50 years, was meant to restore equality among all of the children of Israel, offering new possibilities to families which had lost their property and even their personal freedom. In addition, the Jubilee Year was a reminder to the rich that a time would come when their Israelite slaves would once again become their equals and would be able to reclaim their rights. “Justice, according to the Law of Israel, consisted above all in the protection of the weak” (St. John Paul II, Tertio millenio adveniente 13).

The Catholic tradition of the Holy Year began with Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. Boniface VIII had envisioned a Jubilee every century. From 1475 onwards – in order to allow each generation to experience at least one Holy Year – the ordinary Jubilee was to be celebrated every 25 years. However, an extraordinary Jubilee may be announced on the occasion of an event of particular importance.

Until present, there have been 26 ordinary Holy Year celebrations, the last of which was the Jubilee of 2000. The custom of calling extraordinary Jubilees dates back to the XVI century. The last extraordinary Holy Years, which were celebrated during the previous century, were those in 1933, proclaimed by Pius XI to celebrate XIX hundred years of Redemption and in 1983, proclaimed by John Paul II on the occasion of the 1950 years of Redemption.

The Catholic Church has given to the Hebrew Jubilee a more spiritual significance. It consists in a general pardon, an indulgence open to all, and the possibility to renew one’s relationship with God and neighbor. Thus, the Holy Year is always an opportunity to deepen one’s faith and to live with a renewed commitment to Christian witness.

With the Jubilee of Mercy, Pope Francis focuses attention upon the merciful God who invites all men and women to return to Him. The encounter with God inspires in one the virtue of mercy.

The initial rite of the Jubilee is the opening of the Holy Door. This door is one which is only opened during the Holy Year and which remains closed during all other years. Each of the four major basilicas of Rome has a Holy Door: Saint Peter’s, St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major. This rite of the opening of the Holy Door illustrates symbolically the idea that, during the Jubilee, the faithful are offered an “extraordinary pathway” towards salvation.

The Holy Doors of the other Basilicas will be opened after the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica.

Mercy is a theme very dear to Pope Francis, as is expressed in the episcopal motto he had chosen: “miserando atque eligendo”. This citation is taken from the homily of Saint Bede the Venerable during which he commented on the Gospel passage of the calling of Saint Matthew: “Vidit ergo lesus publicanum et quia miserando atque eligendo vidit, ait illi Sequere me” (Jesus therefore sees the tax collector, and since he sees by having mercy and by choosing, he says to him, ‘follow me’). This homily is a tribute to divine mercy. One possible translation of this motto is “With eyes of mercy”.

During the first Angelus after his elections, the Holy Father stated: “Feeling mercy, that this word changes everything. This is the best thing we can feel: it changes the world. A little mercy makes the world less cold and more just. We need to understand properly this mercy of God, this merciful Father who is so patient” (Angelus, March 17, 2013).

In his Angelus on January 11, 2015, he stated: “There is so much need of mercy today, and it is important that the lay faithful live it and bring it into different social environments. Go forth! We are living in the age of mercy, this is the age of mercy”. Then, in his 2015 Lenten Message, the Holy Father expressed: “How greatly I desire that all those places where the Church is present, especially our parishes and our communities, may become islands of mercy in the midst of the sea of indifference!”

In the English edition of the Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii gaudium the term mercy appears 32 times.

Pope Francis has entrusted the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization with the organization of the Jubilee of Mercy.

The background piece then listed all previous Jubilee years and their Popes.

POPE TO ISSUE JUBILEE BULL OF INDICTION ON APRIL 11 – PAPAL APPOINTMENTS IN THE ROMAN CURIA – BOSNIAN CRAFTSMAN CARVING CHAIR FOR POPE FRANCIS’ TRIP TO SARAJEVO

POPE TO ISSUE JUBILEE BULL OF INDICTION ON APRIL 11

(VIS) – Following the first announcement of the next extraordinary Holy Year by Pope Francis on 13 March, the Holy Father will proceed with the official indiction of the Jubilee of Mercy with the publication of the Bull of Indiction on Saturday, April 11 at 5.30 pm in St. Peter’s Basilica.

The rite of publication will involve the reading of various passages of the Bull before the Holy Door of the Vatican Basilica. Pope Francis will subsequently preside at the celebration of First Vespers of Divine Mercy Sunday, thus underlining in a particular way the fundamental theme of the extraordinary Holy Year: God’s Mercy.

The term bull (from the Latin bulla = bubble or, more generally, a rounded object) originally indicated the metal capsule used to protect the wax seal attached with a cord to a document of particular importance, to attest to its authenticity and, as a consequence, its authority. Over time, the term began to be used first to indicate the seal, then the document itself, so that nowadays it is used for all papal documents of special importance that bear, or at least traditionally would have borne, the Pontiff’s seal.

The bull for the indiction of a jubilee, for instance in the case of an extraordinary Holy Year, aside from indicating its time, with the opening and closing dates and the main ways in which it will be implemented, constitutes the fundamental document for recognising the spirit in which it is announced, and the intentions and the outcomes hoped for by the Pontiff, who invokes it for the Church.

In the case of the last two extraordinary Holy Years, 1933 and 1983, the Bull of Indiction was published on the occasion of the Solemnity of the Epiphany of the Lord. For the next extraordinary Holy Year, the choice of the occasion on which the publication of the Bull will take place clearly demonstrates the Holy Father’s particular attention to the theme of Mercy.

PAPAL APPOINTMENTS IN THE ROMAN CURIA

(Vatican Radio)  Pope Francis has named the former president of the Prefecture for Economic Affairs of the Holy See, Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi, the new prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education. He replaces retiring Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski who has been prefect since 1999.

The Congregation for Catholic Education is responsible for houses of formation of religious and secular institutes; universities, faculties, institutes and higher schools of study, either ecclesial or civil dependent on ecclesial persons; and schools and educational institutes depending on ecclesiastical authorities.

In addition, the Holy Father named Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki, Archbishop of Cologne, Germany as a new member of APSA, the Administration of the Patrimony of the Apostolic See.

APSA is the office of the Roman Curia that administers “the properties owned by the Holy See in order to provide the funds necessary for the Roman Curia to function” (Pastor Bonus, 172 as revised by the July 8, 2014 Motu proprio of Pope Francis on the transfer of what had been the Administration’s Ordinary Section to the Secretariat for the Economy).

BOSNIAN CRAFTSMAN CARVING CHAIR FOR POPE FRANCIS’ TRIP TO SARAJEVO

An AP story from Bosnia-Herzegovina reports that Salem Hajdarovac didn’t sleep for a whole week when he heard his workshop had been granted the honor of carving a special chair that Pope Francis will sit on during his visit to Bosnia. Hajdarovac and his son Edin, both devoted Muslims, started working on the chair on Monday in their little workshop in the central Bosnian town of Zavidovici.

In this photo taken on Saturday, March, 28, 2015 Bosnian Muslim craftsman Salem Hajdarovac engraves decoration onto part a wooden chair in his workshop in Bosnian town of Zavidovici, 170 kms north of Sarajevo (AP Photo/Amel Emric).

They have put all other orders on hold to produce the perfect chair by June 6, when the pontiff will hold a mass in Sarajevo aimed at boosting efforts toward brotherhood in the country ravaged by war two decades ago.

Many Bosnians, including Muslims, Catholics and Christian Serb Orthodox, see Francis as a worthy successor of John Paul II, who is perceived as a champion of inter-faith cooperation and peace.