Frequently Asked Questions

Experts answer questions based on Church teachings, the Bible, and more.

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Q. Is the Pope just trying to impose "Polish spirituality" on the wider Church by canonizing St. Faustina and establishing Divine Mercy Sunday?

A. When the Pope canonized St. Faustina, he was merely placing a final papal "seal of approval," so to speak, on a message and devotion that has captured the hearts and minds of many millions of clergy and laity all around the world, in countries as diverse as the USA, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Mexico, Nigeria, and the Philippines. In short, the Divine Mercy movement has been a truly international and grassroots phenomenon. So nobody "imposed" anything on anybody; this was the result of "spontaneous combustion" throughout the worldwide Body of Christ!

But the Holy Father did pinpoint the reason for the extraordinary appeal of this devotion in his homily on Divine Mercy Sunday in Rome on April 22, 2001: "With these sentiments we are celebrating the Second Sunday of Easter, which since last year, the year of the Great Jubilee, is also called 'Divine Mercy Sunday.' It is a great joy for me to be able to join all of you, dear pilgrims and faithful, who have come from various nations to commemorate, after one year, the canonization of Sr. Faustina Kowalska, witness and messenger of the Lord's merciful love. The elevation to the honors of the altar of this humble religious, a daughter of my land, is not only a gift for Poland but for all of humanity. Indeed, the message she brought is the appropriate and incisive answer that God wanted to offer to the questions and expectations of human beings in our time, marked by terrible tragedies. Jesus said to Sr. Faustina one day: 'Humanity will never find peace until it turns with trust to Divine Mercy' (Diary, 300). Divine Mercy! This is the Easter gift that the Church receives from the risen Christ and offers to humanity at the dawn of the third millennium."

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