Pope Francis has sent over 1,000 priests on a global mission to forgive humanity for grave sins that normally only he on senior Church officials may pardon. The army of super-priests, or super-confessors, are part of a ‘Missionaries of Mercy’ group who have been given a special license for the Vatican’s Jubilee year. BBC News reports: Grave sins include defiling consecrated bread and wine, violating confessional secrecy, and plotting to kill a pope. Pope Francis has often said the Church needs to be less rigid and judgemental. He has declared this a Holy Year of Mercy, and is using it to spread a message of forgiveness – particularly among Catholics who have strayed from the faith and are keen to return. At a Vatican ceremony on Tuesday, the Pope addressed some 700 of the chosen priests, saying penitents should be welcomed with open arms, instead of being judged with “a sense of superiority”. “It’s not with the cudgel of judgment that we will succeed in bringing the lost sheep back to the fold,” he told a gathering in the Apostolic Palace. The priests have been selected from dioceses around the world, and are expected to carry out their special mission [...]