Vatican City, Nov 29, 2018 / 09:55 am
Shrines and sanctuaries should be places of welcoming and mercy where the sacraments can be received, Pope Francis said Thursday to an international gathering of shrine rectors and pastoral workers.
"The shrine," the pope said Nov. 29 in the Vatican's Sala Regia, "is a privileged place to experience mercy that knows no boundaries."
"In fact, when mercy is lived, it becomes a form of real evangelization, because it transforms those who receive mercy into witnesses of mercy," he said.
Pope Francis also told the group he hopes each shrine has the presence of one or more "missionaries of mercy" to help with this evangelical work, and if they do not, to ask the Pontifical Council for the Promoting the New Evangelization to help.