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| Benedict XVI leaves his pallium on the crypt of Celestine V |
A jubilee year is a concept taken from the Law of Moses. I say concept because what the Pope is proposing only seems to be superficially similar to the Jewish year of jubilee. There is also a long history of jubilee from the pagan world of Sumeria and Babylon. From Levitcus 25 (NASB);
‘You are also to count off seven sabbaths of years for yourself, seven times seven years, so that you have the time of the seven sabbaths of years, namely, forty-nine years. You shall then sound a ram’s horn abroad on the tenth day of the seventh month; on the day of atonement you shall sound a horn all through your land. You shall thus consecrate the fiftieth year and proclaim a release through the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you, and each of you shall return to his own property, and each of you shall return to his family. You shall have the fiftieth year as a jubilee; you shall not sow, nor reap its aftergrowth, nor gather in from its untrimmed vines. For it is a jubilee; it shall be holy to you. You shall eat its crops out of the field.
‘On this year of jubilee each of you shall return to his own property. If you make a sale, moreover, to your friend or buy from your friend’s hand, you shall not wrong one another. Corresponding to the number of years after the jubilee, you shall buy from your friend; he is to sell to you according to the number of years of crops. In proportion to the extent of the years you shall increase its price, and in proportion to the fewness of the years you shall diminish its price, for it is a number of crops he is selling to you. So you shall not wrong one another, but you shall fear your God; for I am the Lord your God. -Leviticus 25:8-17
The Pope is calling this a Celestine Jubilee after the thirteenth century Pope Celestine V. Celestine V served as pope for only a very short time. He was the first pope to institute the jubilee within the Roman Catholic Church, although it bore little resemblance to the Jewish jubilee year. Having lived his life as a religious hermit, Celestine V was not equipped to deal with the political conniving of the Roman Curia. A man by the name of Benedetto Caetani convinced Celestine V that it would be alright for him to abdicate the papacy. Afterward, Caetani became pope as Boniface VIII and had Celestine V imprisoned and possibly also had him executed. Boniface VIII is credited with the institution of the jubilee within the Roman Catholic Church because he annulled all of Pope Celestine V's official acts. Boniface VIII went on to become one of the most powerful and evil popes who ever lived.
Celestine V was rescued from obscurity a few years ago when Pope Benedict XVI resigned the papacy. He was the first pope since Celestine V to resign. His successor Pope Francis, did not imprison Benedict XVI. However, he is essentially a prisoner within the Vatican. He is unable to leave Vatican City for fear of arrest since he no longer enjoys sovereign immunity. It remains to be seen if Pope Francis will follow in the footsteps of Boniface VIII.
Pope Francis made the announcement of the jubilee year in the town of Isernia, Italy where Celestine V was born in 1215. There is little detail about what the pope has in mind for this Celestine Jubilee but this quote from the attached Zenit article is interesting.
Francis went on to stress that mercy, indulgence, the remission of debts, is not just something devotional, intimate, a spiritual palliative. “No! It is the prophecy of a new world,” he said, “in which the goods of the earth and of work are fairly distributed and no one is deprived of what is necessary, because solidarity and sharing are the concrete consequence of fraternity.”
The Pope called the Jubilee Year “very timely”, opening wide the door of Divine Mercy for all.
This is not new to our regular readers. On June 14 we wrote about the meeting at the Vatican with the representatives from Jubilee USA. This pope is very interested in debt relief and redistribution of wealth. Exactly what the pope has in mind is still pretty vague. But with his announcement of the Celestine Jubilee, it is becoming a little more clear. Here is more of the Zenit article with a link.
Pope St. Celestine V and St. Francis: Great Teachers of God's Mercy and Forgiveness
Pope St. Celestine V and St. Francis of
Assisi both felt the need to give people the greatest gift: God’s
mercy and forgiveness, Pope Francis has told a large crowd in
Isernia.
Addressing pilgrims in the town square
this evening at the end of his pastoral visit to the Molise region in
south-central Italy, the Holy Father said that like Saint Francis of
Assisi, Celestine V “had a very strong sense of God’s mercy, and
the fact that God’s mercy renews the world.”
The Pope came to Isernia to proclaim
the Jubilee Year of the 13th century Pope who was born in the town
just over 800 years ago. Pietro del Morrone, who later took the papal
name of Celestine, was the most recent pontiff to resign the papacy
of his own accord until Benedict XVI stood down last year.
Elected Successor of Peter on 5th July,
1294 -- 720 years to the day -- he resigned on 13th December of the
same year, and was canonized in 1313. He died in 1296.
Noting how close both Francis of Assisi
and Pietro del Morrone were to the people, the Pope said they had
“the same compassion of Jesus for the many exhausted and oppressed
persons.”
But he added they did not limit
themselves to dispense good advice or pious consolations. “Above
all was the fact they made a choice of a life against the current,
they chose to entrust themselves to the Providence of the Father,”
the Pope said.
The Pope said he has always been struck
by their strong compassion for the people, and that these saints
“felt the need to give the people the greatest thing: the Father’s
mercy, forgiveness.”
Francis went on to stress that mercy,
indulgence, the remission of debts, is not just something devotional,
intimate, a spiritual palliative. “No! It is the prophecy of a new
world,” he said, “in which the goods of the earth and of work are
fairly distributed and no one is deprived of what is necessary,
because solidarity and sharing are the concrete consequence of
fraternity.”
The Pope called the Jubilee Year “very
timely”, opening wide the door of Divine Mercy for all.
“It is not a flight, it is not an
evasion of reality and its problems,” he said. “It is the answer
that comes from the Gospel: love as force of purification of
consciences, force of renewal of social relations, force of planning
for a different economy, which puts the person, work and family at
the center rather than money and profit.”
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