A prominent Italian theologian and archbishop has described He loved us (“He Loved Us”), Pope Francis’ new encyclical on the Sacred Heart, as “the key to his entire pontificate” and “the inspiring motive of his ministry and teaching.”
The Archbishop of Chieti-Vasto (Italy), Bishop Bruno Forte, presented the document at a press conference at the Vatican on October 24.
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Bishop Forte, a prolific spiritual writer who in June became a member of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, called the encyclical “extremely timely” for its focus on “the centrality of the love of God in Jesus Christ” and the “ dramatic challenges of the current era.”
Pope Francis published He loved us Thursday, calling for a renewed understanding of devotion to the Sacred Heart in the modern era and its many urgent challenges.
Bishop Forte affirmed that Pope Francis’ teaching is “far from being…restricted to social issues, as has sometimes been clumsily understood,” and that his message “for the entire human family comes from a single source, presented here more explicitly and clearly: Christ the Lord, his love for humanity.”
“It is the truth on which Jorge Mario Bergoglio has bet his entire life and on which he continues to spend it passionately as Bishop of Rome, pastor of the universal Church,” added the archbishop.
He emphasized that the encyclical “can truly be considered a compendium of everything that Pope Francis, the Pope that God gave to the Church in these difficult years, has wanted and wants to say to every brother and sister in humanity.”
Bishop Forte presented the encyclical together with Sister Antonella Fraccaro, superior general of the Disciples of the Gospel (Discepole del Vangelo), who said: “The encyclical calls us to be missionaries.”
We are called to be “missionaries who transmit love, who love, therefore, with testimony, only with their presence, with words when necessary, without the need to resort to proselytism,” he added.
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Hannah Brockhaus
Hannah Brockhaus is Rome correspondent for Catholic News Agency. He grew up in Omaha, Nebraska, and has a bachelor’s degree in English from Truman State University in Missouri.