The Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy which commenced on December 8, 2015, the feast of the Immaculate Conception and will go on till November 20, 2016 the feast of Christ the King, the living face of the Father’s mercy, will be a major event in the Catholic Church. “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
Declaring the upcoming jubilee, Pope Francis calls upon the Catholic Church to refashion as a place not of judgment but of pardon. During the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy Roman Catholic church priests will be allowed to absolve women who have had abortions. Pope Francis set a new tone for this Jubilee with his surprise announcement in September this year that he would be granting every priest the discretion to absolve women for having had abortions.
Incidentally the Catholic Church dogma considers terminating a pregnancy a heinous sin, and it is normally punishable by excommunication. The motto, “Merciful Like the Father,” he said, “serves as an invitation to follow the merciful example of the Father”. More than a dozen individual jubilee celebrations will reportedly be scheduled in 2016, such as a jubilee for consecrated men and women February 2 to close the Year of Consecrated Life; a jubilee for the Roman Curia February 22; a jubilee for those devoted to the spirituality of Divine Mercy on Divine Mercy Sunday April 3; and separate jubilees for teenagers; for deacons; priests; the sick and disabled; and catechists. A jubilee for “workers and volunteers of mercy” will be celebrated on Blessed Mother Teresa of Kolkata’s feast day Sept. 5 and a jubilee for prisoners will be celebrated Nov. 6. Young people will be able to celebrate their jubilee with the pope at World Youth Day in Krakow, Poland.
For the first time in the history of the Jubilee tradition, there will be an opportunity for individual dioceses to open a Holy Door – the Door of Mercy – either in the Cathedral or in a church of special significance or a shrine of particular importance for pilgrimages. The motto for the year is not to judge or condemn but to forgive and to give love and forgiveness without measure.
In the latest incarnation of a 700-year-old Catholic tradition, the jubilee marks the beginning of a holy period of just under a year in which believers are encouraged to renew their relationship with God and seek forgiveness for their sins. Like other previous jubilees, it will be a special, holy year of remission of sins and universal pardon, on this occasion focusing particularly on God’s forgiveness and mercy. It is understood that this is an extraordinary Jubilee because it had not been pre-determined before. The two Extraordinary Jubilees fell on anniversaries of Christ’s redemptive act (1933, 1983). This Jubilee, however, is based upon a theme.
In fact, the 2016 Jubilee was first announced by Pope Francis on March 13, 2015.
