Jubilee Year to mark the 800th Centenary of the death of St Francis of Assisi

 In 2026, the Franciscan family will celebrate the last of three anniversary years marking the last years of the life of St Francis of Assisi. After marking the 800th anniversaries of the Stigmata at La Verna in 2024 and of the composition of the Canticle of the Creatures in 2025,  the year 2026 will mark the 800th anniversary of the death of St Francis. The home page for the 2026 anniversary is here: Home: Franciscan Centenary.

The opening of this year was celebrated in the Basilica of St Mary of the Angels on 10th January. 

A decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary proclaims a special Jubilee Year, starting on 10th January 2026 and ending on 10th January 2027, to mark this centenary. During this Year, a plenary indulgence can be gained under the usual conditions by those: 

.. who, with a heart detached from sin, participate in the Year of Saint Francis by visiting, in the form of a pilgrimage, any Franciscan conventual church or place of worship anywhere in the world dedicated to Saint Francis or connected to him for any reason, and there devoutly follow the Jubilee rites or spend at least a reasonable period of time in pious meditation and raise prayers to God so that, following the example of Saint Francis, feelings of Christian charity towards their neighbours and authentic vows of harmony and peace among peoples may spring forth in their hearts, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed and invocations to the Blessed Virgin Mary, Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Clare and all the Saints of the Franciscan Family.

Pope Leo XIV addressed a letter to the Ministers General of the different Franciscan bodies taking part in the celebration to open the centenary year (I have added emphasis to a sentence that I think is worth noticing):

At the beginning of his evangelical life, [Francis] heard a call: "The Lord revealed to me that we should say this greeting: “May the Lord give you peace”. With these essential words, he conveys to his friars and to every believer the inner wonder that the Gospel had brought into his life: peace is the sum of all God’s gifts, a gift that comes from above. What an illusion it would be to think that it can be built by human efforts alone! And yet it is an active gift, to be welcomed and lived every day.

It is the same greeting that, on the evening of Easter, the Risen Lord addresses to his disciples, afraid and locked in the Upper Room: “Peace be with you”. It is not a formula of courtesy, but the certain proclamation of Christ's victory over death. Like the voice of the Angels on Christmas night – “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to those whom he loves” – so the peace that the Seraphic Father proclaims is the peace that Christ himself made resound between heaven and earth.

Pope Leo ended his letter by offering a prayer to St Francis, that we might adopt for use during the forthcoming year:

Saint Francis, our brother, you who eight hundred years ago

went to meet Sister Death as a man at peace,

intercede for us before the Lord.

You recognized true peace in the Crucifix of San Damiano,

teach us to seek in Him the source of all reconciliation

that breaks down every wall.

You who, unarmed, crossed the lines of war and misunderstanding,

give us the courage to build bridges

where the world raises up boundaries.

In this time afflicted by conflict and division,

intercede for us so that we may become peacemakers:

unarmed and disarming witnesses of the peace that comes from Christ.

Amen.

Jubilee 2025: World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly

 In 2021, as the world began to emerge from the COVID-19 pandemic, the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly was marked by Pope Francis. It is a celebration that reflects something of Pope Francis' charism of appreciation for the more everyday aspects of the living of the Christian life. He had a particular sense of the role that grandparents can play in the life of their families, in relation to their children and in relation to their grandchildren. He spoke optimistically of the wisdom that the older generation could share with the younger generation, especially with regard to the handing on of the Catholic faith. Perhaps Pope Francis had an awareness of a generational gap in terms of catechesis and practice of the faith that affected parents, and saw in grandparents a resource to bridge this gap; perhaps he was speaking from a cultural background that still retained a lived experience of family life less affected by the disruption of family break up of some more developed countries. 

In his message for the first World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, Pope Francis referenced the words of Pope Benedict XVI during a visit to a home for the elderly. Pope Benedict was visiting a "casa-famiglia", or "family home" of the St Egidio Community, where he described himself as "an old man visiting his peers" and insisted that "it is beautiful to be old!".

From the outset the Community of Sant’Egidio has supported so many elderly people on their way, helping them to stay in their own living milieus and opening various “casa-famiglia” in Rome and throughout the world. Through solidarity between the young and the old it has helped people to understand that the Church is effectively a family made up of all the generations, where each person must feel “at home” and where it is not the logic of profit and of possession that prevails but that of giving freely and of love. When life becomes frail, in the years of old age, it never loses its value and its dignity: each one of us, at any stage of life, is wanted and loved by God, each one is important and necessary.

 As people grow older and become more infirm, I think it is good that they maintain independence in living and in sustaining a social life as long as that is possible. But I think it is also valuable to recognise the point at which the help of others becomes necessary, and to then accept that help with graciousness rather than with resentment. That graciousness represents a gift of the person who is infirm towards the person who cares for them, and is a sign of regard for the person who, by caring, expresses a key dimension of their own dignity as a person. Pope Benedict XVI touched on this idea during his visit with the elderly:

Dear friends, at our age we often experience the need of the help of others; and this also happens to the Pope. In the Gospel we read that Jesus told the Apostle Peter: “when you were young, you girded yourself and walked where you would; but when you are old, you will stretch out your hands, and another will gird you and carry you where you do not wish to go” (Jn 21:18). The Lord was referring to the way in which the Apostle was to witness to his faith to the point of martyrdom, but this sentence makes us think about that fact that the need for help is a condition of the elderly. I would like to ask you to seek in this too a gift of the Lord, because being sustained and accompanied, feeling the affection of others is a grace!

 In the Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee 2025, Pope Francis indicated that the elderly and grandparents might be shown particular signs of hope (n.14):

The elderly, who frequently feel lonely and abandoned, also deserve signs of hope. Esteem for the treasure that they are, their life experiences, their accumulated wisdom and the contribution that they can still make, is incumbent on the Christian community and civil society, which are called to cooperate in strengthening the covenant between generations.

Here I would also mention grandparents, who represent the passing on of faith and wisdom to the younger generation. May they find support in the gratitude of their children and the love of their grandchildren, who discover in them their roots and a source of understanding and encouragement.

And Pope Leo XIV reminds us, in his message for the fifth World Day of the Elderly and Grandparents, to be marked on 27th July 2025, that the Jubilee indulgence can be obtained under the usual conditions for a visit to the elderly who are alone:

[Pope Francis] wanted the World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly to be celebrated primarily through an effort to seek out elderly persons who are living alone. For this reason, those who are unable to come to Rome on pilgrimage during this Holy Year may “obtain the Jubilee Indulgence if they visit, for an appropriate amount of time, the elderly who are alone... making, in a sense, a pilgrimage to Christ present in them (cf. Mt 25:34-36)” (APOSTOLIC PENITENTIARY, Norms for the Granting of the Jubilee Indulgence, III). Visiting an elderly person is a way of encountering Jesus, who frees us from indifference and loneliness. 

Pope Benedict XVI: homily for the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul

Once again I want to suggest a recourse to the original, and, not only to the original, but to a reading of the whole and not just of a part.

Pope Benedict's homily at Mass in St Peter's Basilica this morning is a classic. But not because of it's reference to the authority of the Successor of Peter with regard to excommunication, which is one reference among a range of others.

It offers a commentary on the Scriptural texts of the Liturgy, combining a quite academic knowledge of Scripture and a keen pastoral sense in presenting those texts in the light of that academic knowledge. It is very much in the spirit of the two volumes of Jesus of Nazareth.  Particularly striking is the way in which Pope Benedict draws out the Old Testament precedents for the promises to Peter so much associated with this Solemnity, the promise of the "power of the keys" and that the "gates of the underworld will not prevail against" the Church.

And if one does instead just want to focus upon the reference to the power of the keys manifested in the power of imposing or lifting excommunication, then it is also valuable to recall that that same power is also manifested in the generosity of the plenary indulgence granted to those who, near the point of death, receive the Apostolic Blessing or meet the circumstances which allow them to receive the same indulgence in the absence of a priest (cf Enchiridion Indulgentiorum):

12 In articulo mortis 1. Sacerdos, qui christifideli in vitae discrimen adducto sacramenta administrat, eidem benedictionem apostolicam cum adiuncta indulgentia plenaria impertire ne omittat. 2. Quodsi haberi nequit sacerdos, pia Mater Ecclesia eidem christifideli rite disposito benigne indulgentiam plenariam in articulo mortis acquirendam concedit, dummodo ipse durante vita habitualiter aliquas preces fuderit; quo in casu Ecclesia supplet tres condiciones ad indulgentiam plenariam de more requisitas. 3. Laudabiliter ad hanc indulgentiam plenariam acquirendam adhibetur crucifixus vel crux. 4. Eamdem indulgentiam plenariam in articulo mortis christifidelis consequi poterit, etiamsi eodem die aliam indulgentiam plenariam iam acquisiverit. 5. De hac salutari Ecclesiae dispositione in catechesi tradenda fideles opportune et saepe certiores fiant.

[Sorry, cannot find an English translation]

Indulgences - an interesting discovery

I had reason to look up the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum in the Vatican web site a few minutes ago - as one does! This is the document from the Apostolic Penitentiary which sets out the rules for gaining indulgences, and lists the acts that the faithful can perform to gain indulgences.

The website carries the fourth edition, whereas my printed version is the original first edition from 1968. There are four "general concessions" for a partial indulgence listed at the beginning of the fourth edition of the Enchiridion, only the first three of them appearing in the first edition. The "usual conditions" - sacramental Confession, performance of the action itself, receiving Holy Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father - also need to be met. One can easily underestimate the value of these "general concessions" in favour of the more specific indulgences granted for special occasions such as the Year of St Paul or participation in the World Youth Day, but they do encompass very much the spirit of the revision of indulgences after the Second Vatican Council. They aim to encourage the faithful in their living of the Christian life so that they strive to live it more richly and more deeply, for their own good, for the good the whole Church and for the good of the whole world.

My shaky translations of the "general concessions" from the Latin are:

(1) for the raising of the heart and mind to God during the day, by means of a pious invocation, even if the invocation is only mental and not spoken

(2) for an act of service towards someone in need, undertaken in a spirit of faith

(3) for abstaining from something that is licit and good, in a spirit of penitence

(4) for giving an open testimony of their faith, in the particular circumstances of their daily life.

Number (2) is interesting in terms of how we understand an act of charity undertaken by a Catholic voluntary service in comparison to state provided welfare. The "spirit of faith" gives a kind of value added, a something more, than just the provision of the service in an exclusively material sense.

Number (4) is an encouragement to what we would now term the "new evangelisation", and I was most interested to discover it.