Q1950: Jubilee Year Message to Pope?
(reposting from later lb)
The Jubilee Year, according to Christianity, is a time of joy, the year of remission or universal pardon. The celebration of the Jubilee Year is quoted in several verses of thebiblelike in Leviticus 25:10 which says: “and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee.” The Jubilee Year was celebrated every fifty years and during this year, families were expected to find their absent family members, the Hebrewslaves were to be set free, debts were to be settled and illegally owned land had to be returned to its owners.
According to Roman Catholic Church's history, the first Jubilee Year in the Roman Catholic Church was instituted by Pope Boniface VIII in1300. During the celebration of the first Jubilee Year, Pope Boniface VIII passed his message of the need for people to confess their sins by fulfilling certain conditions. The first condition was to be repentant and confess their sins, and the second condition was to visit either St. Peter or St. Paul in Rome and pass through the “Holy Doors”, within the specified time of the celebration.
According to Pope Boniface VIII, the Jubilee Year was to be celebrated every hundred years. However, this was amended in the fourteenth century by Pope Clement VI. The argument behind the amendment was that the average lifespan of human beings was too short and that some people could not live to see any Jubilee Year. This debate was initiated by St. Bridget of Sweden and the poet Petrarch, among others.