Jubilee Year offers several opportunities for plenary indulgences
By Natalie Hoefer
As the Church progresses through the 2025 “Pilgrims of Hope” Jubilee Year, The Criterion will periodically publish reminders of the conditions and four ways the Holy See has designated that Catholics may receive a plenary indulgence during the jubilee year, which concludes on Jan. 6, 2026.
An indulgence is the remission of temporal punishments due for sins already forgiven, according to #1478 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
The paragraph states that an indulgence is “obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints. … Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance and charity.” (For more information on indulgences, consult paragraphs #1471-1479 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.)
In his “Bull of Indiction of the Jubilee” published on May 9, Pope Francis explained that the jubilee indulgence is a “grace” which “allows us to discover how limitless God’s mercy is.”
Spiritual, sacramental and prayer requirements
The “Decree on the Granting of the Indulgence During the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025 Called By His Holiness Pope Francis,” published by the Vatican on May 13, details the spiritual, sacramental and prayer requirements for obtaining each jubilee plenary indulgence.
Emphasizing a desire for God’s mercy, the spiritual requirements for the jubilee indulgence state that those seeking an indulgence should be “truly repentant and free from any affection for sin.”
In answer to a catholic.com online question about affection for or attachment to sin, Father Charles Grodin explains it is when we “avoid [a] sin because we know it to be wrong or because we want to avoid punishment for the sin, but we still have an attraction or desire of the sin. … As disciples of Christ [we] are called not to just avoid sin but also to truly love what is good and pleasing to God and to detest what is evil and sinful. This is not easy due to original sin, but with grace it is possible.”
In addition to this spiritual requirement, the following sacramental and prayer requirements must accompany each act to obtain a jubilee plenary indulgence via the four means listed in the following sections.
The sacramental and prayer requirements are:
—Make a profession of faith (either the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed).
—Pray an Our Father for the pope’s intentions and for the pope himself.
—Participate in the sacrament of penance during a period either 20 days before or after the plenary indulgence means listed in the following sections. A single participation in the sacrament of penance can apply to any reception of a plenary indulgence 20 days before or after going to confession. (Note: This particular requirement does not apply to those who are confined at home or elsewhere, as described below.)
Only one plenary indulgence may be received per day and can be applied to the person or the soul of a deceased person, but not toward another living person.
The May 13 document lists four ways—done in conjunction with the above spiritual, sacramental and prayer requirements—that a jubilee plenary indulgence can be sought. Each is detailed below.
Visiting a designated jubilee pilgrim site
Special pilgrimage sites have been designated in Rome and in dioceses around the world. A plenary indulgence can be obtained by visiting one of these sites and participating in Mass or any other public prayer, a time of adoration or a rosary while there, in addition to the spiritual, sacramental and prayer requirements listed above.
In the Archdiocese of Indianapolis, three locations have been designated as jubilee pilgrimage sites:
- SS. Peter and Paul Cathedral, 1347 N. Meridian St., Indianapolis.
- The Shrine of St. Mother Theodore Guérin and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 1 Sisters of Providence Road, Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, St. Mary of the Woods.
- The Archabbey Church of Our Lady of Einsiedeln at Saint Meinrad Archabbey, 200 Hill Dr., St. Meinrad.
For those unable to visit a jubilee pilgrimage site
According to the jubilee norms, those “who are truly repentant of sin” but are unable to visit a jubilee pilgrim site— “especially cloistered nuns and monks, but also the elderly, the sick, prisoners and those who, through their work in hospitals or other care facilities, provide continuous service to the sick”—can obtain the jubilee indulgence “in their homes or wherever they are confined” by making a profession of faith (the Apostles’ or Nicene Creed) and praying the Our Father for the pope’s intentions and for the pope himself, “offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives.”
Visiting those in need
A jubilee plenary indulgence can be obtained by visiting “for an appropriate amount of time, brothers and sisters who are in need or in difficulty (the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly people, disabled people ...), in a sense making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them.” The standard spiritual, sacramental and prayer requirements apply to each visit.
Performing acts of penance
The document states that penance is, “in a sense, the soul of the jubilee.”
Therefore, with each act accompanied by the standard spiritual, sacramental and prayer requirements, a jubilee plenary indulgence can be obtained by:
—“abstaining, in a spirit of penance, at least for one day of the week from futile distractions (real but also virtual distractions, for example, the use of the media and/or social networks), from superfluous consumption (for example by fasting or practicing abstinence according to the general norms of the Church and the indications of the Bishops);
—“by donating a proportionate sum of money to the poor;
—“by supporting works of a religious or social nature, especially in support of the defense and protection of life in all its phases, but also by supporting the quality of life of abandoned children, young people in difficulty, the needy or lonely elderly people, or migrants from various countries ‘who leave their homelands behind in search of a better life for themselves and for their families’ (“Spes non confundit,” #13);” or
—“by dedicating a reasonable portion of one’s free time to voluntary activities that are of service to the community or to other similar forms of personal commitment.” †
Related story: Celebrations mark the beginning of the Jubilee Year of Hope in the archdiocese