Evans City woman helps usher in jubilee
An Evans City woman helped usher in the Jubilee Year of Mercy earlier this month during an Italian pilgrimage that included working in a homeless shelter at the Vatican.
On Dec. 8, Pope Francis pushed open the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, signaling the start of the Holy Year of Mercy, a 12-month jubilee emphasizing the merciful and welcoming side of the Catholic Church.
Bernadette Conklin was part of a group in Rome for the opening of the jubilee year.
“There was, I heard, close to 100,000 pilgrims. We had tickets for the outdoor Mass,” she said.
Catholic pilgrims had camped out all night to get spots for the midmorning Mass, during which Pope Francis opened the doors.
There was heavy security for the Mass, according to wire reports. Francis celebrated the open-air Mass under a newly enacted no-fly zone over Rome while snipers and drones and more than 2,250 uniformed soldiers protected the crowds in attendance.
“There was definitely heightened security,” said Conklin, who had last been to Rome in April.
“We had our bags searched. There was definitely a visible presence,” she added.
Conklin was instrumental in creating the statue “Mary, Ark of The New Covenant” last year and creating the anti-abortion ministry, prebornnjesus.com.
Conklin said she, along with two sisters of the recently opened Mary, Ark of The Covenant monastery in Toronto, Ohio, and Sue Newman, a seamstress from Connecticut who made papal vestments with the image of “Mary, Ark of The New Covenant” planned to present the replica statue and vestments to the pope after the pope's usual Wednesday audience with pilgrims Dec. 9.
Conklin said upon arrival in the reserved seats for the papal audience, “The first thing we did was hang vestments over the railing. The appointees folded it up and took it and the 16-inch version of the statue,” she said.
The group also presented the icon, “Jesus' Divine Mercy” to the homeless shelter they volunteered at run by Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.
“We were privileged to meet Mother Superior Paulina and to offer our assistance to help serve at the soup kitchen and gift the men with World Mission rosaries,” Conklin said.
She added the icon symbolized “the babies' prayers and love for their parents that will help restore their families through God's mercy.”
“Mother Paulina stressed to us how dear the sanctity of life was to Mother Teresa and assured us that Mother Teresa would be interceding for our apostolate. She was drawn to the replica statue of the one we just gifted to Pope Francis,” she said.
“Before leaving, we prayed together asking Mother Teresa's intercession for the homeless, the restoration of the babies with their families, and all the works of mercy we do for God's glory,” Conklin said.
Conklin and her group carried a second statue of “Mary, Ark of The New Covenant” with them on their seven-day trip through Italy.“She was leading us into battle,” Conklin said. “We were interviewed by reporters. We heard 'Bela Madonna,' which means beautiful Madonna in Italian, wherever we would go.”The purpose of the statue, she said, “It is to bring our minds to contemplate Jesus in the preborn aspect of his life in the womb of Mary.”Conklin said that while a jubilee year is declared every 25 years by the Roman Catholic Church with the next set for 2025, “Pope Francis chose to surprise us with this extraordinary Year of Mercy.”She thought the pope declared it to mark the 50th anniversary of the closing of Vatican II.“Pope Francis did it to awake the new Pentecost and lead us to living works of mercy,” she said. “Each diocese has its own Holy Door.”Bishop David Zubik of the Pittsburgh Diocese opened the Jubilee Year of Mercy with the Rite of Opening the Door of Mercy Dec. 13 at St. Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh's Oakland neighborhood.Helene Paharik, associate general secretary for the diocese, said, “The year 2000 was the last Jubilee year and that was obvious, the 2000 years since the birth of Christ.”“Francis is an innovator. To awaken us to God's goodness he said we need a year of mercy,” she said. “Looking at the global news headlines you can see how right he is.”“We need to remember how much God forgives us and we might be motivated to forgive one another.”Paharik said the pope instructed the church bishops to open a Holy Door in every diocese.A Holy Door — or porta sancta — has been used since the 15th century as a ritual expression of conversion. Pilgrims and penitents pass through it as a symbol of leaving the past behind and crossing from sin to grace.However, the door only finds meaning when it is associated with Christ.“Christ says 'I am the gateway. The door represents Jesus, the gateway to the Father,” said Paharik.Bishop Zubik said that if the faithful are to be serious about the Year of Mercy, they must reflect on the seven corporal works of mercy and the seven spiritual works of mercy.Pilgrims who walk through the door, he noted, should not do it as a “mindless activity” but as people walking into the “smothering” love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
