SALVATION IS FREE | Pope warns against Holy Year fraudsters

Although Pope Francis is credited with pushing the Church towards a more welcoming approach to homosexuals, he has always been unequivocal in his opposition to same-sex marriage.

“It is a sign of a true conversion of the heart”, the pope said. About 13 percent said they would give to environmental groups, 13.1 percent to human-rights groups, and 12.8 percent to their place of worship.

“Loving and forgiving are concrete and visible signs that the faith has transformed our hearts”, allowing us “to love and forgive as God loves and forgives”.

All Holy Doors across the world bear the official logo for the Year of Mercy, which portrays Jesus carrying a lost soul and gazing on him with forgiveness, not condemnation.

Although the Jubilee of Mercy officially began last week, Pope Francis opened the Holy Door in the Basilica of Saint John Lateran this past Sunday. The words of Genesis reflect our own daily experience: we are constantly tempted to disobedience, a disobedience expressed in wanting to go about our lives without regard for God’s will. This is the enmity which keeps striking at people’s lives, setting them in opposition to God’s plan….

An estimated 10 million Roman Catholics are expected to pass through the Holy Door, a symbol of the threshold to salvation, during a yearlong celebration dedicated to the theme of mercy.

“But you don’t pay for salvation, you don’t buy it”, he said. Salvation can not be paid for, salvation can not be bought.

As Father Timmerman said, “Open the gates of justice; we shall enter and give thanks to the Lord”, he cut a ribbon, opening the door.

“Just as the Holy Door remains open, in order for it to be the sign of welcome which God Himself reserves for us, so too may our door always be wide open in order to exclude no one”, including those we find annoying.

Bishop Julito Cortes of the Diocese of Dumaguete said that this year’s celebration of the 9-day Misa de Gallo or Aguinaldo masses will be centered on the Jubilee Year of Mercy.

The pontiff reiterated that we can not receive God’s forgiveness if we ourselves are unable to forgive. Earlier this week we celebrated the feast of the Immaculate Conception and we recalled that Mary was not only sinless, she was preserved from the effects of original sin from the first moment of her conception.

Universal: That all may experience the mercy of God, who never tires of forgiving.

“Therefore, have courage!” he said.