Ten years after the election of Pope Francis, it seems appropriate for us to return to one of the pillars of his pontificate: mercy. This “vision” shapes his understanding of the meaning of the Church as a witness of mercy. Indeed, it is an ocean of mercy flooding the world, overpowering the river of misery that flows through it, as so eloquently expressed in What is God’s Time? Mercy in the Pontificate of Francis.

The Latin American Church’s Synodal Conversion: Walking Together from blindness to light by Daniel De Ycaza, Jesuit Provincial of Ecuador and Mauricio López Oropeza, presents the Latin American experience of synodal paths. Both the Special Synod of the Universal Church on Amazonia and the First Ecclesial Assembly of Latin America and the Caribbean are ongoing and full of experiences of discernment and listening to the people of God.

Advances in medical science mean that medicine prolongs life, without necessarily enhancing its quality. This has given rise to the act of “euthanasia” or “assisted dying.” This means that rather than a good death, people mean a good path toward it, and claim “the right to die with dignity.” The egotistical way we humans tend to reason confuses dignity with the absence of discomfort, explains José Ignacio González Faus, in Death as a Gift.

Pope Francis’ greatest concern is the lives of individuals and groups of peoples, especially those who are suffering. In diplomacy, the Holy See stands super partes (above all) so its authority is first and foremost moral, then political.

March 13, 2023, to mark the 10th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, La Civiltà Cattolica launched Fr. Antonio Spadaro’s volume: “L’atlante di Francesco. Vaticano e politica internazionale.”

In a speech at the event Cardinal Pietro Parolin reminds us, “If anything, at a time when the pieces of the ‘Third World War’ are ‘welding together’, we need to be more aware that diplomatic activity can only be effective when it succeeds in being an instrument of service to the cause of humanity and not simply to national interests,” Read the full text of the speech in The Atlas of Francis: The Vatican and International Politics.

Also in the issue:

New Religiosity in Italy, Giovanni Cucci
Pius XII, John XXIII and Russia, Giovanni Sale
Does Populism Exist in the Church?, Álvaro Lobo Arranz
Candida, Other Women and Jesuits in 17th-century China, Federico Lombardi
What Form Will Future Christianity Take?, José Frazão Correia
The Real Obstacles to Ecological Transition, Gaël Giraud and Erika Guadalupe Ruiz Laraby
Sport for All: The Holy See and the ‘Signs of the Times’ in the World of Sport, Patrick Kelly
Whither the United Kingdom?, Fernando de la Iglesia Viguiristi

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