Threats: yes, we had them in 1980, and many that remain have been joined by new ones.
Modern (people) feel these threats. What has been said above in this regard is only a rough outline. Modern (people) often anxiously wonder about the solution to the terrible tensions which have built up in the world and which entangle humanity. And if at times (we) lack the courage to utter the word “mercy,” or if in (a) conscience empty of religious content (we) do not find the equivalent, so much greater is the need for the Church to utter his word, not only in her own name but also in the name of all the men and women of our time.
Pope Francis seems to have taken this need to heart. Is he too late? Or has mercy arrived in 2015 at precisely the needed moment?
Dives in Misericordia, the second encyclical of Pope John Paul II, is available online here, and is copyright © 1980 – Libreria Editrice Vaticana
Catholic Sensibility 