The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy was announced in March 2015 by Pope Francis. It will take place from December 08, 2105 to November 20, 2016. This will be the 27th official Jubilee year in the Roman Catholic Church.
The Jubilee year is a special year of universal pardon and for the remission of sins. Typically, this involves a pilgrimage to Rome, to visit the 4 patriarchal churches. Each of these churches has a special, Holy door, which is only opened during a Jubilee Year.
The first Jubilee year on record took place in 1300, inaugurated by Pope Boniface VIII, who originally intended it should happen every 100 years. Not content to wait for another century, the Popes after Boniface were enthusiastic about the idea of the jubilee celebration and made use of biblical references to reduce the wait to 50 years due to the mention of the idea of the Jubilee year in the Old Testament, book of Leviticus, which indicates a 50-year cycle.
However, this changed again when Pope Urban VI decided that a Jubilee every 33 years would be more suitable as this signifies the time spent by Jesus Christ on earth. It was only from 1450 that the current 25-year cycle for the Jubilee was established, with the last Jubilee taking place in 2000, under John Paul II.
The next schedule Jubilee should be in 2025, so why has Pope Francis deviated from the plan? It is certainly not the first ‘extraordinary’ Jubilee to take place in the history of the church. For example, an official Jubilee year was held in 1390, but in 1400 so many pilgrims came to Rome that Pope Boniface IX felt it necessary to proclaim it a Jubilee year and allow for the granting of indulgences. In fact, since 1900 there have been 8 Jubilees, so there has been a discrepancy in the quinquagesimal (25-year sequence) even in recent history.
Apart from the fact that Francis has declared this as a year in which we should contemplate the importance of God’s forgiveness and mercy, he has also linked it to the more traditional, biblical 50-year cycle, as this year, on the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (December 08), will be the 50th anniversary of the closing of the Second Vatican Council.
Piazza San Pietro, by Flickr user: Vicente Villamón
According to the Vatican website the Jubilee year is a year in which special indulgences are granted, most commonly by visiting the 4 patriarchal churches in Rome, but the pilgrim must first prepare their soul for the visit and fulfill the other necessary requirements as set out by the Pope. There are other ways of obtaining an indulgence such as by works of charity or mercy. The Vatican has announced that there will be a ‘Door of Mercy’ in every diocese around the world to permit those who cannot visit Rome to make a Jubilee pilgrimage.
The four patriarchal churches are: Saint Peter's at the Vatican, Saint John at the Lateran, Saint Mary Major, and Saint Paul Outside the walls. Along with these there are three further churches which are of special importance to pilgrims: Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls (San Lorenzo fuori le Mura), The Church of the Holy Cross in Jerusalem (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme), and Saint Sebastian Outside the Walls (San Sebastiano fuori le Mura). The Shrine of Divine Love (Santuario del Divino Amore), which was established as one of the 7 pilgrim churches by John Paul II in 2000, and the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, also known as the “Shrine of Divine Mercy” have been designated as additional Jubilee Churches. Together these churches make up the ‘Seven Church Walk’ as pilgrims would walk around Rome and visit each of the churches in turn.
