MASSACHUSETTS
Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield – iobserve

By Peggy Weber

SPRINGFIELD – Springfield Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski offers an invitation and a challenge in his new pastoral letter, “The Wideness of God’s Mercy,” released Feb. 10, Ash Wednesday.

In the letter, he offers words of welcome and notes that the letter was inspired by the Jubilee Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis. However, he said it also was a direct response to the people of the Diocese of Springfield.

“When we began this process of looking at our evangelization, one of the suggestions was to reach out to people – both those who are in the pews and those who are Catholics but not practicing their faith,” he said. “We wanted to ask them different questions about their perceptions of the faith or perhaps why they don’t practice.”

More than 3,000 people took the diocese’s online survey…