It's the Year of Jubilee! Ka-Ching

The Holy Year door of the Jubilee of the Year 2000 should be symbolically wider than those of previous jubilees, because, humanity, upon reaching this goal, will leave behind not just a century but a millennium. (Tertio Millennio Adveniente, 33)

The Year 2000. Whatever date you may fix for the beginning of the Third Millenium -- midnight on Christmas Eve, one minute after midnight on New Year's Eve 1999 or 2000, -- it cannot be denied that the year 2000 was a big deal for Roman Catholics. The year 2000 AD was a Year of Jubilee, so declared by Pope John Paul II. It was a year for Catholics to make pilgrimages to holy sites, both Christian and Catholic. It was a year for Catholics to multiply their works in order that they might benefit from all the benefits JP2 had promised. It was the Year of the Indulgences! Before going any farther, I think it useful to make certain everyone reading this understands what an indulgence is and what it is not. WHAT AN INDULGENCE IS An indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, in God's justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the Church in the exercise of the power of the keys, through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and of the saints, and for some just and reasonable motive.. . WHAT AN INDULGENCE IS NOT . . .It is not a permission to commit sin, nor a pardon of future sin; neither could be granted by any power. It is not the forgiveness of the guilt of sin; it supposes that the sin has already been forgiven. It is not an exemption from any law or duty, and much less from the obligation consequent on certain kinds of sin, e.g., restitution; on the contrary, it means a more complete payment of the debt which the sinner owes to God. It does not confer immunity from temptation or remove the possibility of subsequent lapses into sin. Least of all is an indulgence the purchase of a pardon which secures the buyer's salvation or releases the soul of another from Purgatory. The absurdity of such notions must be obvious to any one who forms a correct idea of what the Catholic Church really teaches on this subject. (W. H. Kent, Indulgences, The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VII. Robert Appleton Company. (1910) Nihil Obstat & Imprimatur., Electronic version Copyright © 2007 by Kevin Knight A respected Catholic scholar and theologian writes: By an indulgence (indulgencia) is understood the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishments of sin remaining after the forgiveness of the guilt of sin. This remission is valid in the sight of God, and it is granted by the Church out of Her treasury of satisfaction. It is granted to the living by way of absolution and to the dead by way of intercession: remissio coram Deo poenae debitae pro peccatis ad culpam quod attinetiam delitis, quam ecclesiastica auctoritas ex thesauro Ecclesiae concedit pro vivis per modum absolutionis, pro defunctis per modem suffragii. CIC 911 (Ludwig Ott, Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma, (c) 1960 Tan Books and Publishers, p. 441) Pope Gregory the Great (590-604) explicitly formulated the doctrine of Purgatory and that took a lot of the fun out of being Catholic. No longer could a guy run around raping and pillaging all week long and then have his soul laundered by a Saturday evening participation in the 'Sacrament' of Confession. The idea of Purgatory was really nailed down in 1336, when Benedict XII (1334-42) defined the dogma of Purgatory in Benedictus Deus (Denzinger 530f). For some 14 centuries, at least some Catholics have worried about how long they would be staying in that peculiarly Roman Catholic way station in eternity. In the Middle Ages, the RCC addressed those concerns on an individual basis -- likely in accordance with the sinner's ability to pay for the service. Then, the bon vivant pope Clement VI defined the dogmas of the Satisfaction of Christ and Indulgences in Unigenitus Dei Filius (Denzinger 550), and thereby extablished the cash cow that funded his social excesses, financed the luxurious lifestyles of many princes of the RCC and perhaps only incidentally financed the construction of huge cathedrals. I suspect that most folks who read here, even Roman Catholics, have some knowledge of the abuses attendant to the marketing of indulgences, a practice that eventually triggered the Protestant Reformation. When I was growing up Catholic, my friends and I knew that we could do just about anything we wanted during the week, so long as we hit the confessional Saturday evening and were at the communion rail Sunday morning. We had been taught that, in the confessional, the priest would forgive us our sins, so long as we made a good act of contrition and the necessary satisfaction -- which usually was no more than half a dozen Our Fathers and a similar number of Hail Mary's. As far as the temporal punishments due us for our forgiven sins, what the hurriedly-repeated prayers did not take care of could be covered by doing the Stations of the Cross, or joining a Rosary group, serving at the altar, or doing odd jobs around the huge Catholic complex that dominated our neighborhood. Is it really that easy? Read on. Appended to his bull Incarnationis Mysterium, JP2 included a list of ways that one might obtain indulgences during the Year of Jubilee 2000. The list included such actions as making a pious pilgrimage to one of four Basilicas in Rome or places in the Holy Land, doing good works and stuff like that. I think one paragraph listing ways plenary (full) indulgences may be gained for oneself or others, living or dead, is worth posting here: The plenary indulgence of the Jubilee can also be gained through actions which express in a practical and generous way the penitential spirit which is, as it were, the heart of the Jubilee. This would include abstaining for at least one whole day from unnecessary consumption (e.g., from smoking or alcohol, or fasting or practising abstinence according to the general rules of the Church and the norms laid down by the Bishops' Conferences) and donating a proportionate sum of money to the poor; supporting by a significant contribution works of a religious or social nature (especially for the benefit of abandoned children, young people in trouble, the elderly in need, foreigners in various countries seeking better living conditions); devoting a suitable portion of personal free time to activities benefitting the community, or other similar forms of personal sacrifice Wow! I wonder if using the nicotine patch or chewing nicotine gum had any effect on the earning of the plenary indulgence. That Jubilee years generate positive cash flow is something folks have recognized for a long time, as the following citation shows: About six months after his election, Clement received a delegation from Rome, conferring upon him the rank of Roman senator and begging him to return to the city. The delegation also petitioned for a reduction in the interval between Jubilee years (their motive was more economic than spiritual, since Jubilee years attracted many pilgrims to Rome). The new pope did grant that request, and the 1350 Jubilee year yielded great economic benefits for an impoverished Rome. -- Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, (c) 1997 HarperSanFrancisco , pp. 240-41 Jubilee years aren't just good for sinners or the treasury of the Roman Catholic Church, they are wonderful for business in all the places the Catholic faithful might flock to in order to pick up their plenary indulgences. All sorts of special 'events' planned, such as a site on the Sea of Galilee where tourists might experience (for a price) the thrill of walking on water -- 'just like Jesus did.' But Jubilees are about other things, more important things. Though the Jubilee year of 1350 benefited the merchants and citizens of Rome, something even more important to the Roman Catholic Church was involved. A new dogma was defined. More important than the Jubilee year itself was the bull, Unigenitus, that announced it. The pope defined therein the treasury of merits, a vast reserve of merit built up by Christ and the saints that can be applied to individuals, upon the recitation of certain prayers and the performance of certain spiritual deeds, to offset the burden of sin. The means by which these merits are applied came eventually to be called indulgences. DIsputes over the sale of indulgences were a major factor in provoking the Protestant Reformation some two centuries later. (Ibid. If the folks in Rome made money during the Jubilee year of 1350, Jubilee 2000 must have been a windfall for their successors. Those who followed the link to Incarnationus Mysterium will have read of the four basillicas in that city that one piously make pilgrimage to in order to earn plenary indulgences and, perhaps, leave a couple of lira. Recognizing that making a pious side trip to pray in a basillica may not be convenient for the businessmen and others travelling through Rome, the ever innovative Roman Catholic Church came up with a solution. After all, obtaining full relief from the temporal consequences of forgiven sin shouldn't be difficult in this day and age. Rome anticipated receiving some 30 million pilgrims during Jubilee 2000 and pprepared for them as though she were going to host the summer Olympics. And the Vatican cooperatedg. For example, in addition to the pious activities listed or suggested in Incarnationus Mysterium, some of the more innovative activities scheduled during the year included. Those who were athletically-inclined were invited to assemble in that well-known Roman holy place, the Olympic Stadium, on October 29th to receive their share of the plenary indulgence pie. Young men and women weren't left out either. Plans were laid to clear a field near the University of Rome, which apparently was to become a 'holy place' where they might gather on August 19 and 20, during what was billed as the "Jubilee Days For Youth." As far as I am concerned, the cleverest button on the entire Jubilee ATM involves the chapel at Rome's Fiumicino Airport. For months of the Jubilee Year, a part of that bustling terminal was labelled a 'holy place.' After describing the airport's tiny chapel as looking "more like an oversize office cubicle than an place of worship," a journalist wrote: But for this year only, the Fiumicino chapel has at least one thing in common with St. Peter's, San Paolo, San Giovanni, and Santa Maria Maggiore. The Roman Catholic Church has designated it as one of the handful of sites where pilgrims to Rome can obtain a "plenary indulgence," an amnesty that the faithful believe wipes a sinner's slate clean -- and, if he sins no more, let's him go to heaven without first serving hard time in purgatory. -- Yaroslav Trofimov, This Chapel Is Sort Of Like a Checkroom For Spiritual Baggage, Wall Street Journal, January 13, 2000, p. 1 Declaring the airport chapel to be a 'holy place' wasn't all that the Roman Mercantile Church did to facilitate the distribution of indulgences and acquisition of a few lira. The process was streamlined in order to not inconvenience travelers, and their expense accounts no doubt. Even the cleanest of things requires a dust-off," says the Rev. Alberico Papi, the airport's deputy chaplain. "Why endure all the chaos and cars going to the center of Rome if you can gain exactly the same thing with us, without leaving the airport?" The whole procedure takes about an hour, says Father Papi, and it can often be squeezed in between flights.-- Ibid. At least one traveler liked the idea of express indulgence service, That sounds like a good deal to Laura Buffonni. "I have a three-hour layover, and my second plane is an hour and a half late," says the retired teacher from Verona, who is bound for Oman on an adventure-vacation trip. "Considering I'm already in Rome, getting my sins expiated would be a great bonus." -- Ibid. The airport did not do much to market the chapel's products and services. Airport officials made a point of letting folks know that the chapel wasn't part of the program to increase traffic at Fiumicino. "We didn't do all this to attract more Catholic pilgrims or, say, more passengers from North Africa and the Middle East. We're only trying to be politically correct," (says an airport executive). "But if such a religious aspect does positively affect our business -- well, we'll be rather happy." -- Ibid. Given the express indulgence service that was available at Fiumicino Airport, one has to wonder how much other, non-Jubilee, RCC cash generators were affected. For example, did fewer visitors than usual wander into the dark recess behind the altar at Santa Maria Maggiore to drop a couple of hundred lira in the meter so they might gaze upon the ornate reliquary containing the rotted heart of San Carlo Borromeo? Was the left hand of the Roman Catholic Church robbing the right hand? Doesn't really matter. All the money ended up in a strong box in one or another RCC vault. Catholicism! It's not a religion, it's a business.

You can get a short course on Jubilee indulgences here

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