Sacred Heart encyclical is ‘key’ to Pope Francis’ pontificate, theologian says

With Hannah Brockhaus

Vatican City, 24 October 2024 / 12:00

A prominent Italian theologian and archbishop has called Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart “the key to his entire papacy” and “the inspiring reason for his entire ministry and magisterium.”

Presented to Bruno Forte, Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto Dilexit Numbers (“He Loved Us”) at a news conference at the Vatican on October 24.

Forte, a prolific spiritual writer who became a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith in June, called the encyclical “extremely timely” for its attention to “the centrality of God’s love in Jesus Christ” and “dramatic challenges.” of the present.”

Pope Francis was released Dilexit Numbers On Thursday, we called for a renewed understanding of devotion to the Sacred Heart and its many pressing issues in the modern age.

Forte said Pope Francis’s dominance “is far from being limited to social issues, as is sometimes clumsily understood” and that his message “emanates from a single source, presented here more clearly and clearly to the entire human family.” : Lord Jesus Christ, his love for humanity.”

“This is the truth for which Jorge Mario Bergoglio risked his entire life and continues to spend it passionately as bishop of Rome, vicar of the universal Church,” the archbishop added.

He emphasized that the encyclical “can indeed be considered a summary of everything that Pope Francis, the pope whom God has given to the Church in these not easy years, wanted and wants to say to every brother and sister in humanity.”

Forte presented the encyclical with Sister Antonella Fraccaro, superior general of the Disciples of the Bible (Discepole del Vangelo), and said: “The encyclical calls us to be missionaries.”

We are called to be “missionaries” who “communicate love, and therefore love with witness, with mere presence, with words when necessary, without need for proselytizing,” he added.

Hannah Brockhaus is senior Vatican correspondent for the Catholic News Agency. After growing up in Omaha, Nebraska, he earned a degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri. In 2016, she moved to Rome, Italy, where in her spare time she enjoys reading and going on adventures with her husband and son.