Jubilee 2025
Jubilee years are a time of newness. They have been celebrated throughout the history of the Church, but their roots go back to the Old Testament, when the Israelites were commanded to celebrate a jubilee every 50 years. Beginning with the blowing of a ram’s horn—the yobel, from which the word jubilee comes—on the Day of Atonement, it was meant to be a kind of ‘reset’ or ‘refresh’ for their relationship with God and with each other. Debts would be forgiven, misappropriated land returned, slaves freed, and the land given rest. It was a stark and dramatic reminder for the ancient Israelites that nothing was absolutely theirs—not even the Promised Land. The Israelites were to live as if everything was a grace and blessing from the God who brought them out of Egypt.
The Jubilee of Jesus
The jubilee of Jesus Jesus consciously used the language of jubilee when beginning his ministry. In the synagogue at Nazareth, he stood before the people and read from the prophet Isaiah:
‘The spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to captives, sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim a year of the Lord’s favour’ (Lk 4:18-19).
Through his life, death, and resurrection, what Jesus brought about was a kind of ‘ultimate jubilee’: a time of newness and ‘new creation’ (2 Cor 5:17), a time of abundant mercy for his people until his return in glory. The apostles saw their task as continuing this work of Christ’s jubilee: ‘See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation’ (2 Cor 6:2).
Jubilee in the Church
The first jubilee was celebrated in 1300 AD at the initiative of Pope Boniface VIII. They are celebrated every 25 years in the Church—though the pope may mark ‘extraordinary jubilees’ outside of that — and bear the hallmarks of the ancient spirit of jubilee. In the tradition of the Church, a Jubilee is proclaimed by a Papal Bull of Indiction. This publication explores the particular themes and focus of the Jubilee. The Bull for Jubilee 2025 is titled Spes non confunditor ‘Hope does not disappoint’ (Rom 5:5). Pope Francis notes that we, as a pilgrim people, need ‘moments of greater intensity to encourage and sustain hope as the constant companion that guides our steps’ (Spes non confundit §5).Jubilee years offer those moments of ‘greater intensity’, opportunities to reorient, refresh, and renew our relationship with the Lord and with our neighbours.
One of the important hallmarks of Catholic jubilee years is the availability of the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence. Pope Francis reminds us that indulgences are ‘a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy. Not by chance, for the ancients, the terms “mercy” and “indulgence” were interchangeable, as expressions of the fullness of God’s forgiveness, which knows no bounds’ (SNC 23).God lavishes us with mercy. He gives us every means of receiving that mercy, and the granting of indulgences by the Church is just one of these. For Jubilee 2025, the conditions of receiving the Jubilee Plenary Indulgence have been greatly expanded to include a number of indulgences and a number of different prayer, formation, and charitable initiatives.
These include:
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Formation activities based upon the Catechism and documents of the Second Vatican Council.
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Pilgrimages to Rome or other sacred Jubilee sites.
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Corporal and spiritual works of mercy.
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Penitential practices:almsgiving, fasting and abstinence, and volunteering in the community.