GOD FORGIVES AGAIN AND AGAIN- Pope Francis

I was an hour early for the Angelus yesterday (March 17,2013 ) and had a little place to stand at St.Peter's Square from where I could see the window where the pope would appear. The weather had held out for that time and there wa no rain. Rain clouds had hid the sunlight.

For an hour before the Angelus the pope was meeting people, even on on the street outside the Vatican, and this could be seen on the graint TV screens in the piazza.

The first non European pope, in centuries,spoke without any prepared text, and he spoke about God's mercy. He said one thing which was important and he wanted us to remember, was that God forgives again and again.God is merciful and expects all of us to be merciful too. God forgives again and again.

We could hear the pope intermittently. Since the sound system was not working at St.Peter's Square and we could hear the pope on and off. Even some parts of the Angelus, prayed in Latin, were not heard.Though sound speakers near the centre of the road leading to St.Peters' was working and they could be heard in the piazza.

The pope was speaking in Italian. Not being a polyglot he  could not address different groups in their native language, as did Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Perhaps overtime we will hear him speak in Polish, German and French.

Pope Francis Bergoglio!-representing Jesus Christ in the ony Church Jesus founded outside of which there is no salvation and in which all people throughout the world ,need to convert, to go to Heaven and avoid Hell. The 266th pope with the power to forgive sins, turn ordinary bread into the Spiritual Body of Jesus, present in His physical Body, Soul and Divinity in the Holy Eucharist. A pope who can save a person at the last moment before death,from being lost for all eternity to the demons, fierce fires and screams of Hell, where there is no pardon of God.

In Hell, Dante saw a pope suffering.Sister Josepha Menendez saw priests and sisters in Hell. At Garabandal,Spain Our Lady said that there were cardinals, bishops and priests who were going to Hell and taking many souls with them. Sister Faustina Kowalski says the time of mercy is now while we are still alive.After we die it will be the time of Justice. The Catechism of the Catholic Church states only one mortal sin(un-Confessed)can take a soul to Hell.(Mortal sins include masturbation, fornication,watching pornography, stealing and cheating in big amounts,politically supporting communists and atheists, violating the Ten Commandments ...)

God is love, God is forgiving as the pope says- but it is only for those who respond and ask for  forgiveness in the Sacrament of Confession, in the Catholic Church. God's pardon is available for all. It is universal. However only those persons will be saved who respond.(Dominus Iesus 20).So though salvation is freely available  there is a condition.
-Lionel Andrades

Photo Catholic News Agency