Forgiveness and reconciliation have always been at the heart of the Jubilee, in the special form of plenary indulgence. Not much room is devoted to the subject in the normal catechism and it is often treated with prejudice. However, it is central in order to live the Holy Year with awareness and enjoy its benefits to the full.
We discussed this with Monsignor Vincenzo Peroni, a former master of the Pope’s ceremonies and today in service at the Custody of the Holy Land.
“Plenary indulgence is at the centre of the Jubilee and has represented its essence since the beginning. It is like the top of the path of conversion and renewal of life to which the Jubilee calls all the baptized,” he underlined.
As the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches, “an indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, with the faithful Christian, who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church.”
“Access to Divine Mercy is always open, ordinary and generous, especially through the Sacrament of Penance,” Monsignor Peroni explains. Indulgences “are a surplus of grace which purifies the faithful from the consequences that sin leaves in life, even after it has been forgiven.”
It could be said that “only the Sacraments are strictly necessary for Christian life; an indulgence is a further gift, which brings with it great benefits.” Therefore, “what is necessary must be available ordinarily. The precious nature of the plenary indulgence is also appreciated because of its character of being extraordinary.”
In addition to the plenary indulgence linked to the Jubilee, there are many others which are granted on specific occasions or linked to particular shrines.
Conversion and spiritual renewal are the objective of all the Jubilees. However, every Jubilee has its specific physiognomy, given by the Bull of Indiction which connects these general objectives with the particular needs of the Church and society at that time. For the 2025 Jubilee, Pope Francis has invited the faithful to rediscover the virtue of hope, in a historical context which seems to contradict and suffocate this urge towards the future.
In history, the Popes have indicated different ways and times in which to celebrate the Jubilee, but the substance of the institution of the indulgence has never changed. The last major reform was that of Paul VI, who in the Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina wanted to recover the highly spiritual value of indulgences.
The gift of indulgence wants to show the infinite love of God. In this sense, Monsignor Peroni explains, “mercy is free, because, by definition, love and forgiveness are free. The value of mercy is priceless, no man could every repay it.” As St Peter wrote, Jesus has already paid the price of our ransom from the slavery of sin (1 Peter 1, 18-19).
“Although in some historical periods there have been errors in applying the institution of indulgence, the Doctrine and the practice in its regard have never changed, Monsignor Peroni emphasizes. “The expression ‘profit from the indulgence’ in this case does not refer to an economic advantage but to acquiring a spiritual benefit.”
In actual fact, there is an active participation required of the penitent to receive the indulgence: “We sinners,” Monsignor Peroni explains, “are asked for some works which have, on the one hand, the task of reorienting life to communion with God, taking the distances from sin, and on the other, to receiving the grace that is already ready for us. Repentance and sacrifices are instruments aimed at the good and the holiness of the person, even though often, at first, we only see their challenging dimension.”
Monsignor Peroni also tells us about his experience as a confessor. “The confessional is a really special ‘court’: delivering a sentence of condemnation is never allowed” he says. “At the end of a confession, the only possibilities are to absolve the sins or postpone absolution, until the penitent is in the right conditions to receive it correctly.” A confessor can see the “Grace of God concretely and efficiently at work.”
“In the parish, during the great solemnities, there have been times when I have spent six-eight hours a day in the confessional and leave it more rested and calmer than when I started. Not infrequently, I have surprised myself by saying words of consolation and orientation that I could never have guessed in another context: the Grace of the Sacrament acts in the penitent and in the confessor.”
Christian Hope “is not a wish for a better future or an illusionary ‘everything will be OK’, but flows out from the certainty of the victory of Jesus over sin and over death” Monsignor Peroni emphasizes. Hence, the wish for all those who will be pilgrims in this Jubilee to “let themselves be conquered by the ardent desire to live the first communion with God. More than a wish, it is an exhortation, the same one that St Paul addressed to the Christians of Corinth: ‘Be reconciled to God!’ (2 Cor 5,20). And from the forgiveness celebrated and received, there will flourish the capacity to forgive their brothers.”
“Even the great hope for peace in the Holy Land that we are all nurturing can only follow this path: only if we have the liberating experience of the forgiveness of God, will we learn to forgive one another.”
Marinella Bandini