Bishop of Salford on the Year of Mercy

(Vatican Radio) In this Year of Mercy the local Church is continuing to promote initiatives to highlight this Extraordinary event in the life of the Church. Nowhere is that more evident than in the diocese of Salford in the UK.

It has decided to have four Holy Doors and is placing much importance on the spiritual and corporal works of mercy.

The Bishop of Salford, John Arnold  said that one of the ideas that they have had is a “Mercy bus”, which he explained, “is a bus which will go to the centre of some of the towns in the diocese and take the Church to the people.”

Listen to Lydia O’Kane’s interview with the Bishop of Salford, John Arnold

Traditionally the Holy Year has been based in Rome, but Bishop Arnold  said, that the Pope’s call for the year to be celebrated also by the local Church throughout the world, is a wonderful idea.

“Although it’s a wonderful idea to have a pilgrimage to Rome, quite frankly a lot of people cannot afford that, which in a sense can rather exclude them, so to be able to have pilgrimages locally… will bring a very positive reaction.”

So why is Mercy important in this day and age? The Bishop stressed that, “something that seems to be going wrong in our world is that if I’m all right my little world is good as it is and we’re forgetting about the people who are without the essentials of life.”