On the Jubilee

"Whether in a Jubilee, both ordinary and extraordinary, all the rules handed down by the Holy Father Benedict XIV are to be observed, to which the Bull of the Jubilee is not opposed? Resp. Affirmatively." S. C. Ind. 6 Feb. 1852. This general Decree was confirmed by Pius IX on 15 March of the same year. Cf. Benedict XIV, Constitutions Cum Nos nuper, Convocatis, Inter praeteritos, Celebrationem; Decr. Auth., Append. XVIII.

"The fast prescribed for obtaining the Jubilee cannot be fulfilled on days reserved for a fast of strict law, nor on the Ember days through the year, and unless fasting foods are employed, the use, as regards the quality of foods, of any Indult or Privilege, even of the B. Crusade, is forbidden. But in those places where it is difficult to use fasting foods, Ordinaries can indulge that eggs and milk-products be used, the form of ecclesiastical fast being observed in other things." S. Poenit. 15 Jan. 1886, 26 Feb. 1879, 25 March 1881.

"Whether for the fast required for the Jubilee the use of eggs and milk-products is lawful at least in those regions in which, by custom or dispensation, it is permitted in fasts enjoined by precept of the Church... Resp.... Let it stand by the declarations of the same S. Poen., which are transmitted here annexed.... Fasting foods are to be used, the use, as regards the quality of foods, of any Indult or Privilege, even of the B. Crusade, being forbidden...." S. Poenit. 4 March 1879.

Fasting foods exclude meats, eggs, milk-products. From the cited Responses and another Response of the same S. Poen. 2 Apr. 1881.

"Whether, when a just cause occurs for commuting the enjoined works prescribed in the Bull of the present Jubilee (8 Dec. 1864), a commutation of this sort can be made outside the act of sacramental confession? Resp. From the declaration made by the Most Holy Lord Pope Pius IX: Affirmatively." S. Poenit. 16 March 1865.

"He supplicates that he, the confessor, may be able to commute them, the enjoined works, and to dispense concerning communion with children not yet capable of communion, even outside the act of sacramental confession. Resp. It is not expedient." S. Poenit. 30 Jan. 1886.

"He supplicates that the Confessor can commute the works enjoined for the Jubilee, or some of them, not once only, but several times, toward one wishing to gain the Jubilee several times. Resp. Confessors do not lack this faculty." S. Poenit. 30 Jan. 1886.

"Whether in favor of those who intend to repeat the Holy Jubilee, the works enjoined by the Most Holy Father can be commuted, just as from just and reasonable motives they can be commuted the first time in which someone gains the Jubilee? Resp. Affirmatively." S. Poenit. 18 March 1886.

Whether by one single Confession and Communion, generally speaking, satisfaction can be made for the precept of annual confession and Paschal communion, and at the same time the Jubilee acquired? Resp. Negatively. S. Poenit. 25 Jan. 1875, 26 Feb. 1879, 25 March 1881, 15 Jan. 1886. Cf. On Indulgences N. 1065.

"The quantity of alms ought so far to correspond to the faculty of individuals, inasmuch as that which suffices for the poor does not suffice for the rich." S. Poenit. 30 Jan. 1886.

"Whether public Oratories can be reckoned among the Churches to be visited? Resp. Affirmatively, provided that the Oratories themselves are devoted to public worship, and in them Mass is customarily celebrated." S. Poenit. 1875, 1879, 25 March 1881, 15 Jan. 1886. Cf. Decreta Authent., n. 310.

"Whether, for distinguishing the visitations by number, it is necessary and sufficient that the faithful go out and again enter the same appointed Church? Resp. Affirmatively." S. Poenit. 1875.

"Insofar as four visitations prescribed in the day must be performed in the same Church, it is asked whether, for distinguishing visitations of this sort from one another, it is necessary after each one to go out from the Church; or whether it suffices, while remaining in the same Church, to pass from one place to another, or even merely to rise, as commonly happens for the Stations of the Holy Way of the Cross? Resp. That it is necessary to go out from the Church." S. Poenit. 25 Jan. 1875.

"Visitations appointed for gaining the Jubilee, provided that they are made in the prescribed number, can be instituted at the choice of the Faithful, whether on one day or on different days." S. Poenit. 1879, 25 March 1881, 15 Jan. 1886. They can be placed before or after Confession and Communion. S. C. EE. et RR. 27 Aug. 1776. Cf. Bizzarri, ed. 1885, p. 392. But generally with regard to Indulgences, although in the Indult it is said: "who, having confessed and been refreshed by Holy Communion, shall visit this or that church on this or that day," etc., nevertheless the visitation "can be fulfilled either before or after the fulfillment of the other pious works." S. C. Indulg. 19 May 1759.

"Whether Religious can gain the Jubilee by performing in their own Church the visitations prescribed for it? Resp. Negatively." S. Poenit. 1875.

"Whether Abbots and Regular Prelates, since they have quasi-episcopal jurisdiction over subjects within the enclosures of their respective Monastery, can designate the Church or Oratory of their own Monastery for their subjects to visit, in order to gain the Indulgence of the Jubilee? Resp. Negatively." S. Poenit. 15 Dec. 1886. Cf. N. 1083.

"Whether the visitations which he, the Ordinary, performs together with the Chapter and Seminary in vestments not choral, but black, chanting in a subdued voice, can be regarded as processions to the four Churches designated for gaining the Jubilee; and consequently whether it is within the judgment of the same Ordinary to diminish the number of visitations, just as it is within his faculty to diminish those which are made processionally? Resp. Insofar as processions cannot be made in the usual manner, affirmatively." S. Poenit. 1875, 30 Jan. 1886.

"The faithful remaining in processions outside the doors of the Church or Oratory because of its narrowness, and praying with the others, form morally one body, and therefore satisfy the visitation for gaining the jubilee." S. Poenit. 1875.

"Those can gain the Jubilee who fulfill or complete the prescribed conditions partly in one diocese, partly in another, from whatever cause, if they observe the ordinances of the Ordinaries of the places." S. Poenit. 15 Jan. 1886, 1875.

"When in the Apostolic Letters by which the Jubilee of this year is proclaimed, two fasts are prescribed, nothing is expressly established whether they must be made in one and the same week. Therefore it is asked, must these two fasts be made on two days of one and the same week? Resp. Negatively." S. Poenit. 11 March 1886.

"The Indult (Gravibus Ecclesiae, 24 Dec. 1874) for those navigating and making a journey, who are impeded, so that, during the running year of the Jubilee, they cannot execute the works enjoined for gaining the Jubilee, is to be extended even beyond the year." S. Poenit. 1875.

The same S. Poen. on 30 Jan. 1886, responding to questions concerning the prorogation of the Jubilee of the same year for travelers, says: "In the present Jubilee nothing is proposed concerning prorogation."

"Whether he who has already gained the Indulgence of the Jubilee the first time can gain it again, if he repeats the enjoined works? Resp. Affirmatively." S. Poenit. 1 June 1869, 26 Feb. 1879, 25 March 1881, 15 Jan. 1886. Yet the same S. Poenit. on 25 Jan. 1875 declared: "by force of the present Jubilee... the Indulgence of the Jubilee itself can be acquired once only." In the Encyclical Epistle of Pius IX, Gravibus Ecclesiae, 24 Dec. 1874, by which the great Jubilee was proclaimed, these things are had: "let them obtain the most plenary... Indulgence... once."

"Once, i.e., only the first time, the Jubilee can be acquired as regards the other favors joined to the same Jubilee, namely absolutions from censures and from reserved cases, commutations or dispensations." S. Poenit. 15 Jan. 1886, 1 June 1869, 25 Jan. 1875, 26 Feb. 1879, 25 March 1881.

"Whether Confessors can absolve a penitent who, having already been absolved from reserved cases and from censures, has fallen into them again, before he has fulfilled the works prescribed for acquiring the Jubilee? Resp. By virtue of the Jubilee he can be absolved from reserved cases and from censures one time only, or negatively." S. Poenit. 1875. Cf. Lehmkuhl, Theol. Mor., ed. 1884, n. 555.

"1. Whether someone can be absolved by his own Confessor on the ground that he had never been bound by any reserved case in previous Confessions, and therefore has never used this jubilee privilege? 2. If affirmatively, whether he ought again to perform the works which are enjoined for obtaining the jubilee? 3. Whether the solution which Your Eminence will deign to pronounce is to be held as a general rule to be kept also in other Jubilees? Resp. To the 1st and 2nd: Affirmatively. To the 3rd: One must stand by the Apostolic Letters." S. Poenit. 1873.

"Whether Confessors can use the extraordinary faculties toward him who indeed asks to be absolved and dispensed, but does not have the will of performing the enjoined works and of gaining the Jubilee? Resp. Negatively." S. Poenit. 1 June 1869, 15 Jan. 1886.

"As to the choice of Confessor, whether he ought to have been approved by the Ordinary of the place or by the Ordinary of the Order with respect to Regulars? Resp. Regulars, according to the Apostolic Letters Gravibus Ecclesiae, for gaining the Jubilee can choose for themselves any confessor, who nevertheless has been approved by the Ordinaries of Places for hearing the confessions of secular persons." S. Poenit. 1875.

"Since the Bull of the indiction of the Jubilee concedes that a confessor may be chosen from those actually approved, and does not add, by the Ordinaries of places, can a regular choose a regular priest approved by the regular superior alone, and not by the Ordinary of the place, and receive from him the application of the privileges or faculties of the Jubilee? Resp. Affirmatively." S. Poenit. 30 Jan. 1886.

"Whether, as regards the faculties of absolving, other limitations are had besides those which were made in the Brief which begins Arcano, and whether one can be absolved from heresy externally brought forth, and the obligation ceases of denouncing heretics and their favorers? Resp.... From heresy one can indeed be absolved, but heretics and favorers and others are to be denounced, as of law." S. Poenit. 16 March 1865.

"Whether among the faculties conceded for the Jubilee there is contained the faculty of absolving penitents from heresy? Resp. Affirmatively, errors having first been abjured and retracted, as of law." S. Poenit. 1 June 1869.

"The same His Holiness indulges besides that, during the Jubilee, the faithful rightly disposed can be absolved also from the crime of heresy, nevertheless the obligation remaining firm of abjuring errors, or heresy, of repairing scandals, etc., as of law." S. Poenit. 25 Jan. 1875. Cf. Acta S. Sed. Vol. 4, p. 617.

Whether by force of the Jubilee those guilty of rebellion against the Pontifical civil Government, and those who in Italy have illegitimately acquired ecclesiastical goods, can be absolved? Resp. Affirmatively, under the conditions expressed in the Letter of the S. Poen. 2 June 1869. S. Poen. on the same day and year, and 25 Jan. 1875, 26 Feb. 1879, 25 March 1881.

"In other Jubilees the faculty is usually conceded of commuting vows by dispensing; but in the present one only the faculty of commuting them is conceded; can it be understood that also in this case the faculty of commuting vows by dispensing was conceded? Resp. Negatively." S. Poenit. 1875.