The Roman Catholic Jubilee, also called the Holy Year, is a solemn plenary indulgence that is granted by the pope. It was invented by Boniface VIII (1294-1303) in 1300. With his bull he decreed that every hundred years whoever visited 'the basilica of St. Peter and that of St. Paul in Rome', and was in grace, that is, absolved of sins , he would have earned the pardon of all the punishment he would have had to suffer in purgatory for the sins he had committed. Clement VI (1342-1352) reduced the Jubilee to every fifty years, and so the second Jubilee was celebrated in 1350. Urban VI (1378-1389) further reduced it to thirty-three years in memory of the years that Jesus lived on earth. Finally, Paul II (1464-1471) ordered that the Jubilee be celebrated every twenty-five years and the time interval between one Jubilee and another has remained so since that time. According to what the Catholic Encyclopedia says, the usual conditions to apply for the purchase of the ordinary Jubilee are confession, communion, visits to certain places of worship of the Catholic Church and the recitation of some prayers. From 1950 it is no longer essential to come to Rome to gain this indulgence. In fact, in the Papal Historical Dictionary we read that in that year the apostolic constitution Par annum sacrum proclaimed the universal character of the Jubilee indulgence for which 'it was no longer essential to make the journey to Rome, since the ordinaries were authorized to designate episcopal , for the prescribed visits,
As far as the Jubilee is concerned, it must be said that although the law of Moses speaks of a jubilee ordained by God, the Catholic one has nothing to do with it. Let us remember what the Jewish Jubilee consisted of. God said to Moses, "You will sanctify the fiftieth year, and you will proclaim liberation in the land for all its inhabitants. It will be a jubilee for you; each of you will return to his own property, and each of you will return to his family. The fiftieth year. it will be a jubilee for you; you will not sow or reap what the fields produce for themselves, and you will not harvest the untrimmed vines "(Lev. 25: 10,11). In that year, therefore, according to the law, whoever, because of his poverty, had sold one of his properties in previous years, returned to possession of his property; and likewise even those who, because of poverty, had sold themselves as a slave to one of their brothers in that year returned free. This jubilee was the shadow of what was to take place when Christ came; because as at the jubilee the slave returned in freedom, so with the coming of Christ those who were sold slaves to sin would be freed from sin through the Gospel of peace. But the popes, to get rich, took the Jewish jubilee and made it a rite that would free the Catholic from a presumed purgatory, attracting huge sums of money to the papacy's coffers. (For further information on the Jubilee, because as at the jubilee the slave returned in freedom, so with the coming of Christ those who were sold slaves to sin would be freed from sin through the Gospel of peace. But the popes, to get rich, took the Jewish jubilee and made it a rite that would free the Catholic from a presumed purgatory, attracting huge sums of money to the papacy's coffers. (For further information on the Jubilee, because as at the jubilee the slave returned in freedom, so with the coming of Christ those who were sold slaves to sin would be freed from sin through the Gospel of peace. But the popes, to get rich, took the Jewish jubilee and made it a rite that would free the Catholic from a presumed purgatory, attracting huge sums of money to the papacy's coffers. (For further information on the Jubilee,click here ).
The devotion of the Via Crucis was invented by the Franciscan friars in the fifteenth century, and became of general use in the eighteenth century when the popes extended it to all churches. Devotion consists in pausing alone or in procession in front of fourteen paintings (called stations and which hang on the walls) one after the other while reciting certain established prayers. The fourteen stations recall the events that happened to Jesus along the way to Calvary and his death and are divided as follows: 1) Trial and death sentence; 2) Jesus takes the cross; 3) First fall; 4) Meeting with the Mother; 5) Simon of Cyrene; 6) Meeting with Veronica; 7) Second fall; 8) Meeting with the pious women; 9) Third fall; 10) Jesus is stripped; 11) Crucifixion; 12) Death of Jesus; 13) Deposition from the Cross; 14) In the sepulcher.
Regarding this exercise, we read in the book The Update of Indulgences: 'The pious exercise of the Via Crucis therefore remains valid and strongly recommended. Done well, it produces copious fruits of fervor and holiness. It renews the memory of the sufferings that Christ the Lord endured, carrying the Cross, along the road that leads from Pilate's praetorium to Mount Calvary, where he offered his life for our redemption. (...) Only two things are obligatory for the pious exercise: 1) to pass from one 'station' to another; 2) meditate or consider the Passion of the Lord. All the rest is left to the piety and devotion of each one (...) The addition of some vocal prayer, although not prescribed, is almost spontaneous and is very useful for preparing and accompanying meditation, similarly to what is done in the S. Rosario. Whoever makes the pious exercise of the Via Crucis can acquire the plenary indulgence. It is understood that, as for any other plenary indulgence, it must also fulfill the three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer according to the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff '(Sessolo Giovanni, op. Cit., P. 49,50).
Is this devotion scriptural? Not at all, because nowhere is it taught in the Bible that disciples were given to such a practice. And then it must be said that some of the episodes recalled in these 'stations' do not exist in the Word of God (we are referring to numbers 3, 4, 6, 7, 9).
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