Case 2. The Jubilee

Lucius, a Catholic both good and ingenious, wishes to gain the recently promulgated Jubilee. Among the prescribed works, only the sixty visits to the parish church occasion difficulty, which he resolves to complete in this manner. For he observes that the church must be visited “for fifteen continuous or interrupted days, whether natural or even ecclesiastical”; hence in the morning before he goes to business he makes two visits to the church of his domicile; at midday he twice visits another parish church near the place where he conducts business; having returned home in the evening, after the ecclesiastical day has begun, he completes four other visits; on the following Sunday he adds six visits to the two customary ones for hearing Mass and Vespers, and so on. To satisfy the condition of praying for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff, he employs no determined form, but now offers the Mass heard, now the Rosary recited, now a pious meditation made. Hence it is asked:

1. What is a Jubilee, and what is its extent?

2. What conditions, and in what manner, must be fulfilled in order to gain it?

3. Can anyone gain it partially?

4. What is to be said of the case?

1. What is a Jubilee, and what is its extension?

A Jubilee is a plenary indulgence granted by the Pope with greater solemnity than usual for a definite time together with special faculties for confessors. A general Jubilee is usually granted in the first instance at Rome, and afterwards it is extended to the whole Church.¹

1 Manual of Moral Theology, vol. ii, 455.

2. What conditions for gaining it are prescribed, and how are they to be fulfilled?

The conditions for gaining an ordinary Jubilee are confession, communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intention in churches to be visited for the purpose a certain number of times. As they are conditions on which the Jubilee is granted, they must be exactly fulfilled.

3. Can a Jubilee be gained partially?

Some were of opinion that either a full remission of temporal punishment is gained by a plenary indulgence, or nothing. According to the received opinion, a plenary indulgence may be gained only partially on account of the temporal punishment due to venial sins unrepented of not being remitted. A Jubilee may also be partially gained, in that one who intends to gain it may receive the benefit of the special faculties granted to confessors although afterwards he changes his mind and does not try to gain the indulgence.

4. The case. It appears from the case that the bishop had prescribed sixty visits to be paid to the parish church on fifteen days in order that the faithful might gain the Jubilee. If there was only one parish church in the place where Lucius lived, he had to visit that church, and he did not fulfil the condition by visiting the church where his work was. He was at liberty to make the visits within the natural, or within the ecclesiastical day. It would seem that the visit to the parish church to hear Mass on Sunday may be reckoned among the rest, as it is not otherwise of obligation. Lucius satisfied the obligation of praying for the intentions of the Pope by saying the Rosary, but not by hearing Mass, nor by pious meditation, as these are not vocal prayers.