Continuing an ancient tradition in the Church, dioceses across Australia are preparing to open Doors of Mercy for the Jubilee of Mercy that will commence on the feast of the Immaculate Conception, 8 December 2015, across the Church internationally.

Pope Francis wants the Holy Year to be for believers ‘a true moment of encounter with the mercy of God’. The Holy Father asks the faithful to make pilgrimage to the Holy Door, open in every Cathedral or in the churches designated by the diocesan Bishop. Everyone can participate in the Jubilee pilgrimage.

Throughout Australia, Holy Doors are planned in every diocese to symbolise our entry into a new experience of the mercy of God.

The National Office for Evangelisation will be a source of information and resources about how dioceses are celebrating the Year of Mercy locally.

The Jubilee of Mercy will conclude on 20 November 2016, the feast of Christ the King.

Upon returning from the Synod on the family, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, Chairman of the Bishops Commission for Evangelisation, said, ‘When the recent Synod ended, it was clear that the journey wasn’t over. We still have a long way to go. The Year of Mercy is the next phase of the journey.

Pope Francis wants us all to understand that we’re on the road together – journeying, like Abraham, as a weak and sinful people, but called and accompanied by God who won’t leave us where and as we are. God sees our sinfulness far more clearly and comprehensively than we ever do. But God sees more – and because he sees more, God is infinitely merciful’.

Released by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference