The ‘Year of Mercy’ was the misnomer of the year. At the start of the ‘Holy Year’, we were told by a local priest that the ‘floodgates’ of Divine Mercy would be wide open for everyone. The only floodgates that were actually open in 2016 were the ones that inundated Haiti!

Rather than Divine Mercy, the people of Syria experienced terror, privation, destruction and death. In Nigeria, there was no evidence of Divine Mercy when the church roof collapsed on 160 Christians as they prayed to God.

No mercy was shown to the hundreds of men, women and children who perished in the earthquakes in Italy. In the aftermath of the catastrophe, Pope Francis was seen walking forlornly amidst the ruins. That image alone gave the lie to ‘The Year of Mercy’.

The ‘holy doors’ are now closed and, from now on, any shred of evidence of Divine Mercy will be as hard to find as a needle in a haystack!

John Guillaumier

St Julian’s