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A jubilee year, also known as a “holy year,” is a special year in the life of the church currently celebrated every 25 years. The most recent ordinary jubilee was in 2000, with Pope Francis calling for an Extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy in 2015-2016. Jubilee years have been held on regular intervals in the Catholic church since 1300, but they trace their roots to the Jewish tradition of marking a jubilee year every 50 years. According to the Vatican website for the jubilee, these years in Jewish history were “intended to be marked as a time to re-establish a proper relationship with God, with one another, and with all of creation, and involved the forgiveness of debts, the return of misappropriated land, and a fallow period for the fields.”
that the history of humanity and our own individual history are not doomed to a dead end or a dark abyss, but directed to an encounter with the Lord of glory” (Spes non confundit, 19). As Pilgrims of Hope, we carry the message of a constant encounter with the crucified and risen Lord of glory to all peoples and to the ends of the earth.
This message of hope and encounter with the Lord of glory has been entrusted to the Church and her children. As the Church proclaims this message in this Jubilee Year, she, as the mystical body of the merciful Lord, opens the store house of mercy accessible to her to grant indulgence to those who devoutly seek the Lord by turning away from their sins.