Missionaries of Mercy

Diocesan priests describe once-in-a-lifetime experience of being commissioned by Pope

CLIFTON  Five diocesan priests expressed excitement over the once-in-a-lifetime experience of being able to bring the healing mercy of God home to the Paterson Diocese, after having joined 800 priests worldwide to be commissioned as Missionaries of Mercy by Pope Francis on Ash Wednesday, in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. The Holy Father gave these priests the mandate to serve as preachers of mercy and hear confessions filled with mercy during this Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The five priests also spoke about the delight in spending time in the warm and loving presence of Pope Francis. They attended an audience with him in the Sala Regia of the Vatican’s Apostolic Palace on the day before the commissioning and then concelebrated Ash Wednesday Mass with him on the next day. During these events, many of them also experienced the joy of shaking the Holy Father’s hand for the first time — marking for some, their first time meeting a Pope.

“I was nervous and excited to shake the Pope’s hand. It was a wonderful thing,” said Msgr. John Hart, pastor of Assumption Parish, Morristown, and a Missionary of Mercy, who had met St. John Paul II at a papal audience in 1990. “It was a beautiful experience being in the presence of the Vicar of Christ.”

The other diocesan priests who traveled to Rome were: Father Paul Manning, executive director of St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard, Madison, and diocesan vicar for evangelization; Father Dariusz Kaminski, pastor of St. Stephen Parish, Paterson; and Father Jhon Madrid, parochial vicar of St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, Oak Ridge, and St. John Vianney Parish, Stockholm. Father Geno Sylva, the English language official for the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, was already in Rome, because he serves at the Vatican which planned the commissioning events. Father Hernan Arias, vicar for pastoral care and pastor of St. Margaret of Scotland Parish, Morristown, and Father Stanley Barron, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, Flanders, have been designated as Missionaries of Mercy but did not travel to the Vatican for the commissioning.

Pope Francis called these Missionaries of Mercy to become “a living sign of the Father’s welcome to all those in search of his forgiveness,” according to the Pontifical Council’s website about the Jubilee Year of Mercy, at www.im.va.

“Our designation as Missionaries of Mercy is symbolic of Jubilee Year of Mercy and of the call for all priests to be missionaries of mercy,” Father Manning said.

About 800 of the more than 1,000 Missionaries of Mercy “were present here in Rome to receive personally from the Holy Father the mandate to be living signs of the Church’s maternal solicitude for the people of God,” Father Sylva said.

“All of us working in the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelization, the Curial Office responsible for the organization of all of the major initiatives and events of the Jubilee of Mercy, were inspired by the zeal, humility, and enthusiasm with which these priests received this important charge.” Father Sylva said. “Our Pontifical Council is looking forward to remaining in contact with each of the missionaries throughout the Jubilee.”

During the Tuesday audience, the Pope gave Father Manning lots of spiritual insights, during his reflection on the duties of a Missionary of Mercy.

“The Holy Father emphasized the need to offer mercy rather than judgment and to promote good will,” said Father Manning, who also shook the pontiff’s hand after the audience — his first time meeting a Pope. “I was speechless. I looked him in his eyes. I just shook his hand. I didn’t say anything. He didn’t either,” the priest said.

The papal audience showed the Holy Father to be “a kind shepherd, who had a frank desire to connect with us and spoke in a direct way,” Msgr. Hart said.

“The Pope spoke about the role of Missionaries of Mercy to help people reconcile with the Church,” said Msgr. Hart, who also took noted of his “warmth” and “wonderful smile” and spoke about his keen sense of humor. “When the Holy Father heard that the Missionaries of Mercy were going all around the world, including to Alaska, he told those missionaries to ‘bundle up,’ when they get home.”

Meanwhile, Father Silva ranks the procession that the Missionaries of Mercy made together in Rome as the “most significant and touching” experience of those Holy Year events. In a long line, they walked from Castel Sant’Angelo, down Via della Conciliazione, through the Piazza of St. Peter’s Square, to the Tomb of the Apostle Peter, past the relics of Saints Padre Pio and Leopoldo, and then into the Sala Regia of the Apostolic Palace for the meeting with the Holy Father.

“As we prayed and sang together, often in languages, we did not speak. There was a feeling of solidarity that came over all of us. We were made so keenly aware of the fraternity that we share in Christ and of how blessed we are to be priests — instruments of God’s great mercy,” Father Sylva said.

During the procession, the Missionaries of Mercy walked through the Holy Door of St. Peter’s, leading Msgr. Hart to imagine that moment when he will be able to “kiss the gates of Heaven” in eternity.

All the local priests expressed joy over concelebrating the Ash Wednesday Mass with the Holy Father. They received a purple stole for the Ash Wednesday Mass with Holy Year logo and a rolled-up document on parchment in Latin, declaring their new designation, Msgr. Hart said.

“It was a moving experience to be in the presence of the Holy Father at the Mass,” Msgr. Hart said.

Father Kaminski called the Mass and the other Holy Year events that week “an amazing experience being in Rome with the other priests who were all appointed for this special mission.” Soon after his trip to Rome, he traveled to his homeland of Poland to bestow that mercy on his mother and offer confessions as a Missionary of Mercy.

Father Kaminski, who had met St. John Paul II, recalled singing during the Ash Wednesday Mass the Hymn of Mercy, which St. Stephen’s parishioners have been singing regularly at Mass. The priest invited the diocese to attend a Mass on Divine Mercy Sunday, April 2 at noon in St. Stephen Church to be celebrated by Bishop Serratelli, who will commission four of the parish’s Eucharistic Missionaries of Divine Mercy, who will consecrate themselves perpetually.

“The Pope was very spiritual. I was focused on the message that he was telling us,” Father Kaminski said. “I am blessed to experience so much love from God during this Jubilee Year of Mercy and this year of my 25th ordination anniversary.”