The once-every-quarter-century event is likely to bring about 32 million pilgrims to Rome

Last Thursday at St Peter's Basilica, Pope Francis presided over a ceremony where the papal bull, or official edict, for the Jubilee was read.

It lays out his vision for a year of hope and asks for gestures of solidarity for the poor, prisoners, migrants and Mother Nature.

Behind scenes chaos

Despite the pomp-filled event's majesty and prayerful hope for the upcoming year, there is still much to be done in the seven months until 24 December.

That's when Francis will open the basilica's Holy Door and formally inaugurate the Jubilee.

Just now though, completing preparations and public works projects in time are knife-edge priorities.

As occurred in the months before Jubilee 2000, pre-Jubilee public works projects are overwhelming Rome.

Reports speak of flood-lit construction sites operating around the clock, entire swathes of central boulevards rerouted and traffic jamming Rome's already clogged streets.

Vortexes of work aside, those in charge have faith it will all come together in time. And anyway - Rome's a fabulous place.

"In a beautiful city, you live better" said the Vatican's Jubilee point-person, Archbishop Renato Fisichella. Jubilee funding is helping make it more so for visitors.

"Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its people, pilgrims and tourists who will come."

Jubilee years

A Jubilee Year - also known as a Holy Year - has been a tradition since about 1300, originating during Pope Boniface's papacy.

They happen usually once every quarter century, though they can be called more often.

Sometimes a pope calls an extraordinary one - to call attention to a particular issue or celebrate a momentous event for instance.

Francis called the last extraordinary Holy Year in 2016.

He wanted to emphasise his desire to present the Church as merciful and welcoming rather than moralising and remote.

Next year's Jubilee will be the first ordinary one since 2000 under Pope John Paul II's papacy.

The Vatican website says it should also be a time of reconciliation with adversaries and an occasion to promote solidarity, hope and justice in the world.

The Holy Doors, symbolising the doorway of salvation for Catholics, are opened only during Jubilee years.

There are four in Rome - in St Peter's Basilica, St John Lateran, St Mary Major and St Paul Outside the Walls.

Their openings will be staggered, with St Peter's door opening on December 24 this year and closing on January 6, 2026.

We need hope

The Jubilee is necessary, says Francis.

"Hope is needed by God's creation, gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness" Francis said in a vigil service after launching the Holy Year.

"Hope is needed by those peoples and nations who look to the future with anxiety and fear."

Source

• AP News
• Reuters

In the Diocese of Gizo in the Solomon Islands the isolation and remoteness of parishes from the diocesan centre makes it virtually impossible for the people living in the villages to come to the Holy Door at the cathedral.

So the pastoral team of the diocese, led by Bishop Luciano Capelli, thought of a mobile Holy Door.

In two months, the Holy Door has gone to the most remote islands and villages of the diocese. Its pilgrimage ended on May 9th.

In each of the 14 stations visited there was a level of participation in the liturgy never seen before.

The programme was carried out in almost the same way in every village.

The Warriors of the village officially welcomed the Holy Door.

This was followed by a liturgy over a period of three days to present the meaning of the Jubilee.

It included a prayer vigil in preparation for the sacrament of reconciliation, and then a dialogue of reconciliation between people and groups in conflict.

"The priests were surprised by the participation and goodwill experienced in a real climate of mercy," said Capelli.

"It is beautiful when people are able to forgive and start afresh... mistakes and conflicts can become moments of encounter and growth if approached with an open heart, with faith and generosity."

Source

• wantokniuspepa.com
• Image: infoans.org

Speaking during a press conference last week, the cardinal said: "Diocese by diocese, parish by parish", the rate of people going to Confession had "increased dramatically during the past six months".

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He told Catholics who were part of a march from the Marist Brothers' High School ground to the Sacred Heart Cathedral that opening the door of mercy means renewing their commitment in their faith and to start fresh by transforming their lives through God's mercy.

The significance of opening the door of mercy is believing that those who pass through the door is a gesture of leaving their old lives and are transformed in starting fresh with their lives.

"Mercy is the basic principle of the activity of God and Jesus, so it's the method that God chooses to meet us or reveal himself to us, and since it's the basic principle or the nature of God it should also be a guiding principle for us Christians," Chong said.

"Mercy reveals the very definite plan or the way, the method that God reveals himself to human beings."

"So we hope that everyone who enters through the door of mercy will be moved and empowered by God's mercy and become an agent of mercy too," he said.

Source

• fijitimes.com
• Image: fijitimes.com

This power is normally reserved to bishops, who frequently themselves grant priests permission to forgive the sin.

Procurement of an abortion incurs an automatic excommunication under Church law.

The Year of Mercy opens on December 8 and ends on November 20, 2016.

In another gesture emphasising mercy, the Pope has allowed priests of the traditionalist Society of St Pius X to offer absolution of sins "validly and licitly" to those who approach them for confession during the Holy Year.

These moves and an expansion of the indulgences available to Catholics during the jubilee year were announced in a letter by Francis to Archbishop Rino Fisichella.

The archbishop is president of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of the New Evangelisation, which is organising the holy year on the Pope's behalf.

Regarding abortion, the Pope's letter calls it a "tragedy" and refers to "a widespread and insensitive mentality has led to the loss of the proper personal and social sensitivity to welcome new life".

The Pope also mentioned the pressures some women come under that can result in a decision to have an abortion, and the suffering and anguish that women can experience afterwards.

The papal decision is aimed at penitents seeking forgiveness with a "contrite heart".

Priests are asked to express a "genuine welcome" combined with a reflection that explains the gravity of the sin committed, besides indicating a path of authentic conversion.

Regarding the SSPX, Francis wrote that "This Jubilee Year of Mercy excludes no one."

"I trust that in the near future solutions may be found to recover full communion with the priests and superiors of the fraternity," the Pope stated.

Members of the SSPX are considered not to be in full communion with Rome, and, in normal circumstances, its priests and bishops cannot exercise Roman Catholic ministry.

Other acts of mercy during the jubilee year mentioned in the Pope's letter include an indulgence granted to prisoners who enter their prison chapels.

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• The Tablet
• Reuters
• Image: The Guardian

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi responded to reports in Italian media that she would be canonised before the end of the Holy Year of Mercy.

"It is a working hypothesis, therefore no official confirmation can be given," Fr Lombardi said.

"The cause for Mother Teresa is still underway and it is therefore premature to speak of an already established date for the canonisation," Fr Lombardi said.

Italian media reported that Archbishop Rino Fisichella had told Rome municipal officials that Mother Teresa's canonisation had been set for September 4, 2016.

Archbishop Fisichella is president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation.

His office is responsible for organising the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis which will begin on December 8 this year.

In India, a day before Fr Lombardi's statement, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church said Mother Teresa would be canonised in September next year.

"As a Christian, I am eagerly waiting for the canonisation of Mother Teresa," church spokesman Paul Thelekat said.

"She has been a mother to millions of Indian especially the poorest of the poor and the underprivileged," he said.

According to an Italian media report, Archbishop Fisichella also told Rome city officials that the relics of St Padre Pio would be brought to Rome from southern Italy for veneration by the faithful, but no date had been set.

This event, plus a canonisation of Mother Teresa, and the Holy Year, would draw massive crowds to Rome, hence the need for municipal planning.

Usually, a second miracle would be needed for Mother Teresa's canonisation to proceed, but Pope Francis has waived this requirement in other cases.

St John Paul II allowed her cause for beatification to proceed without waiting for the usual five years after a candidate's death to elapse.

Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, was beatified in 2003.

The founder of the Missionaries of Charity, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Sources

• Catholic Courier
• IB Times
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The Pope did this in an official Bull of Indiction convoking the extraordinary jubilee Year of Mercy, which will run from December 8, 2015, to November 20, 2016.

The 9500 word document, "Misericordiae Vultus" ("The Face of Mercy"), was released on Saturday.

It opens with the declaration, "Jesus is the face of the Father's mercy. These words might well sum up the mystery of the Christian faith".

The document develops three main themes.

First, Pope Francis dwelt on the theological understanding of God's mercy.

Secondly, the Pope offered practical ways to live well the Holy Year.

Thirdly, he issued particular calls for justice and conversion.

"Mercy is the very foundation of the Church's life," Francis wrote.

"The Church's very credibility is seen in how she shows merciful and compassionate love."

The motto of the Holy Year is "Merciful like the Father," a phrase taken from Luke's Gospel.

The pontiff identified mercy as the central function of the Church and the key aspect of Jesus' ministry and work.

He added that our own exercise of pardon will determine how we will eventually be judged.

Francis wrote that mercy and justice are not contradictory, but are "two dimensions of a single reality that unfolds progressively until it culminates in the fullness of love".

God envelopes justice "and surpasses it with an even greater event (mercy) in which we experience love as the foundation of true justice".

"The temptation . . . to focus exclusively on justice made us forget that this is only the first, albeit necessary and indispensable step," the Pope explained.

"The time has come for the Church to take up the joyful call to mercy once more," he stated.

The Pope has requested that every diocese in the world open a "Door of Mercy" similar to the one he will open on December 8 at St Peter's Basilica.

And, during Lent of the Holy Year, the Pope will send out priests to whom he will grant "the authority to pardon even those sins reserved to the Holy See".

Sources

• Vatican Radio
• National Catholic Reporter
• Catholic Herald
• Image: The Church in Malta

The last Pope to open the (cemented shut) Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica for an universal Extraordinary Jubilee was the future saint, John Paul II, in 1983: he promulgated the Jubilee to celebrate the 1950 years since the Redemption carried out by Christ through his Death and Resurrection in the year 33.

The word "Jubilee" comes from the Hebrew "Yobel" meaning "billy goat", in reference to the ram's horn used in religious celebrations. The Jubilee is the year of the remission of sins and of suffering from sin, of reconciliation, of conversion and of sacramental penance.

365 days of solidarity, hope, justice and commitment to serving God in the spirit of joy and peace with everyone.

Above all, however, the Jubilee Year is the year of Christ, the giver of life and of grace to humanity.

It is called "Holy Year" because it is celebrated with sacred rites and also because its mission is the holiness of human life.

The universal Jubilee can be: Ordinary, if it falls after a set period of years (generally 50 or 25 years); extraordinary if it is declared as a celebration of an event of outstanding importance; particular if it is limited to the inhabitants of a particular city, province or area.

Its origins date back to the Old Testament as the official website of the Holy See explains: "The Law of Moses prescribed a special year for the Jewish people: "You shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim the liberty throughout the land, to all its inhabitants; it shall be a jubilee for you when each of you shall return to his property and each of you shall return to his family.

This fiftieth year is to be a jubilee year for you: you will not sow, you will not harvest the un-gathered corn, you will not gather the untrimmed vine. The jubilee is to be a holy thing to you, you will eat what comes from the fields."(The Book of Leviticus 25, 10-14).

The trumpet with which this particular year was announced was a goat's horn called Yobel in Hebrew, and the origin of the word jubilee. The celebration of this year also included the restitution of land to the original owners, the remission of debts, the liberation of slaves and the land was left fallow." Continue reading

Sources

• Vassallomalta
• Image: i-Italy