143 insignifi cant to the spreading The Divine Mercy message and devotion. The Lord providentially had removed the obstacle of the ban under the Pontifi cate of Pope Paul VI. This freed Pope John Paul II to promote the salutary message of God’s mercy without any fear of showing favoritism to a candidate for the altars from his former Archdiocese. Two years after His election to the Papacy, Pope John Paul II gave witness to the importance of Divine Mercy by writing his second Encyclical with the very appropriate title Dives in Misericordia [Rich in Mercy]. It was published on November 30, 1980, the fi rst Sunday of Advent. Because the encyclical is biblically-rooted, many non-Catholic theologians immediately hailed it as among the greatest of papal encyclicals. Catholic theologians, on the other hand, under the infl uence of political theology and its heavy emphasis on social justice, were puzzled by the appropriateness of the Encyclical for the times and only came to appreciate its relevance and value slowly and with time. Pope John Paul II, during his post-assassination hospitalization and recovery, had St. Faustina’s Diary, Divine Mercy in my Soul read to him. After his hospitalization, while visiting the Shrine of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Pope John Paul II identifi ed his special mission as the Vicar of Christ with that of Divine Mercy, stating: “Right from the beginning of my ministry in St. Peter’s See in Rome, I considered this message (of Divine Mercy) my special task.” Ten years later in his homily on Divine Mercy Sunday, on April 10, 1991 the Holy Father linked the Encyclical’s message to that of Sr. Faustina, stating: “The words of the encyclical on Divine Mercy (Dives in Misericordia) are particularly close to us. They recall the fi gure of the Servant of God, Sister Faustina Kowalska. This simple woman Religious particularly brought the Easter message of the merciful Christ closer to Poland and the whole world.” During his 1997 visit to Łagiewniki (four years after Sr. Faustina’s beatifi cation) Pope John Paul II even more closely linked the Gospel message of mercy, his Petrine ministry, and the message of mercy that Christ chose to give to the world through St. Faustina. The link reached its culmination on April 30, 2000, the Second Sunday of Easter, when Pope John Paul II not only canonized St. Faustina and passed The Divine Mercy message and devotion so eloquently expressed and lived by her to the people of the Third Millennium, but also proclaimed that Sunday as the Divine Mercy Sunday. In this act, Pope John Paul II fulfi lled Jesus’ request through St. Faustina that the Sunday after Easter be known as the Feast of Divine Mercy. The link was reaffi rmed during the Holy Father’s entrustment of the world to The Divine Mercy from the Divine Mercy Shrine in Łagiewniki on August 17, 2002, and also when the Lord called him home just after he had received the Eucharist on April 2, 2005, the vigil of Divine Mercy Sunday.
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