Chapter III. The Jubilee

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. The first jubilee was granted by Boniface VIII in the year 1300 with the intention that it should be held thereafter every hundred years, but subsequent Popes changed the period into fifty, thirty-three, and finally into twenty-five years. This is called a greater or ordinary jubilee, to distinguish it from the less or extraordinary jubilee, which the Pope grants on some special occasion, as, to celebrate his election to the papacy. A general jubilee is granted to all the faithful, usually in the first place at Rome, and afterward it is extended to the rest of the world; a particular jubilee is granted to a particular province or religious order.

The conditions prescribed for gaining an ordinary jubilee are: confession, Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions in churches to be visited for the purpose a certain number of times.

Confession is necessary for those who wish to gain the jubilee even if they are not conscious of mortal sin, and the annual confession which is prescribed by ecclesiastical law will not suffice. If a grievous sin is inadvertently omitted from the jubilee confession, this is nevertheless sufficient for gaining the indulgence, but of course the sin which was forgotten must be mentioned in the next confession. If, after going to confession and before fulfilling the other conditions for gaining the jubilee, mortal sin is committed, the person should go again to confession to gain the indulgence.

A good Communion distinct from the ordinary Easter Communion is another of the conditions to be fulfilled.

At Rome the four basilicas, St Peter’s, St Paul’s outside the Walls, St John Lateran, and St Mary Major, are usually designated to be visited a certain number of times, and during the visits prayer is to be offered up for the Pope’s intention. Outside Rome the churches to be visited are usually left to be determined by the bishop. The visits must be made in one day according to either the civil or the ecclesiastical method of reckoning, or, in other words, reckoning either from midnight to midnight, or from the hour of vespers.

For an extraordinary jubilee, besides the above conditions, fasting and almsgiving are also prescribed.

The fast is a strict one. A day which is not a fasting day by ecclesiastical law must be chosen, unless the contrary is specially conceded in the bull of indiction of the jubilee, and then the strict fast must be observed, nor can advantage be taken of any indult. Even those who are not bound by the ecclesiastical law of fasting must fulfil this condition if they wish to gain the jubilee.

The amount to be given in alms is not generally specified, and any amount will suffice provided that it is not so small as not to deserve the name. Religious, wives, children, and servants, may have their obligation fulfilled for them by superiors, husbands, parents, and masters.

Bishops and confessors receive faculties to commute all the above conditions for ordinary and extraordinary jubilees except prayer, confession, and sometimes Holy Communion. For the lawful and valid use of this faculty there should always be a just cause, and some good work of more or less equal merit should be enjoined in place of that commuted.

Regulars who desire to gain the jubilee may choose a confessor from among those, whether secular or regular, who are approved by the bishop, or they may confess to one approved by their superiors, Nuns are sometimes empowered to choose a confessor for the purpose of gaining the jubilee from any priests approved by the bishop; sometimes it is prescribed that the confessor chosen must be one of those who are approved for the confessions of nuns. Confession may be made to the priest thus chosen as often as the penitent desires before the fulfilment of the last condition for gaining the jubilee, but not afterward.

The confessor chosen for the jubilee confession has special faculties given to him by the bull of indiction. This should always be carefully studied in order that the confessor may know the extent of his powers. Ordinarily, he is empowered to absolve penitents from all censures and sins, even those that are reserved, ‘The cases of attempted absolution of an accomplice and a false charge of solicitation are generally excepted, or power to absolve them is only granted under restriction, The absolution would be valid if the penitent who came to confession with the intention of gaining the jubilee afterwards changed his mind and gave up the attempt; and probably the reservation would be removed if a reserved sin were confessed by such a penitent, though the confession were sacrilegious, or inculpably null and void. Jubilee confessors have also ample faculties granted them for dispensing from vows or commuting them, though vows of perpetual chastity, of entering a religious order with solemn vows, and those which have been accepted by third parties, are usually excepted.

While the greater jubilee is being celebrated at Rome, the special faculties granted to bishops and priests for the internal forum are ordinarily suspended, at least with respect to penitents who can make the journey to Rome.

In the same way during this time other indulgences granted by the Pope in favour of the faithful who are living are suspended, though they may all be gained for the faithful departed.

Certain special indulgences, as those for the saying of the Angelus, those granted to the dying, and for the solemn exposition of the Blessed Sacrament, are excepted,