_Venerable Brethren, Health and Apostolic Benediction._
What we have twice already by Apostolic authority decreed, that an
extraordinary year of jubilee should be observed in the whole Christian
world, opening for general welfare those heavenly treasures which it is
in our power to dispense, we are pleased to decree likewise, with God's
blessing, for the coming year. The usefulness of this action you,
Venerable Brethren, cannot fail to understand, well aware as you are of
the moral condition of our times: but there is a special reason
rendering this design more seasonable perhaps than on other occasions.
For having in a previous encyclical taught how much it is to the
interest of States that they should conform more closely to Christian
truth and a Christian character, it can readily be understood how
suitable to this very purpose of ours it is to use what means we can to
urge men to, or recall them to, the practice of Christian virtues. For
the State is what the morals of the people make it: and as the goodness
of a ship or a building depends on the goodness of its parts and their
proper union, each in its own place, similarly the course of government
cannot be rightful or free from obstacles unless the citizens lead
righteous lives. Civil discipline and all those things in which public
action consists, originate and perish through individuals: they impress
on these things the stamp of their opinions and their morals. In order,
therefore, that minds may be thoroughly imbued with those precepts of
ours, and, above all, that the daily life of the individual be ruled
accordingly, efforts must be made to the end that each one shall apply
himself to the attainment of Christian wisdom, and also of Christian
action not less publicly than privately.
And in this matter efforts must be increased in proportion to the
greater number of dangers that threaten on every side. For the great
virtues of our fathers have declined in no small part: passions that
have of themselves very great force have through license striven to
still greater: unsound opinions entirely unrestrained or insufficiently
restrained are becoming daily more widespread: among those who hold
correct sentiments there are many, who, deterred by an unreasonable
shame, do not dare to profess freely what they believe, and much less to
carry it out: most wretched examples have exercised an influence on
popular morals here and there: sinful societies, which we ourselves have
already designated, that are most proficient in criminal artifices,
strive to impose on the people and to withdraw and alienate as many as
possible from God, from sacred duties, from Christian faith.
Under the pressure of so many evils, whose very length of duration makes
them greater, we must not omit anything that affords any hope of relief.
With this design and this hope, we are about to proclaim a sacred
Jubilee, admonishing and exhorting all who have their salvation at heart
to collect themselves for a little while and turn to better things their
thoughts that now are sunken in the earth. And this will be salutary not
only to private persons but to the whole commonwealth, for the reason
that as much as any person singly advances in perfection of mind, so
much of an increase of virtue will be given to public life and morals.
But the desired result depends, as you see, Venerable Brethren, in great
measure on your work and diligence, since the people must be suitably
and carefully prepared in order that they may receive the fruits
intended. It will pertain, therefore, to your charity and wisdom to give
to priests selected for the purpose the charge of instructing the people
by pious discourses suited to common capacity, and especially of
exhorting to penance, which is, according to St. Augustine, "The daily
punishment of the good and humble of the faithful in which we strike our
breasts, saying: forgive us our trespasses." (Epist. 108.) Not without
reason we mention, in the first place, penance and what is a part of it,
the voluntary chastisement of the body. For you know the custom of the
world: it is the choice of many to lead a life of effeminacy, to do
nothing demanding fortitude and true courage. They fall into much other
wretchedness, and often fashion reasons why they should not obey the
salutary laws of the Church, thinking that a greater burden has been
imposed on them than can be borne, when they are commanded to abstain
from a certain kind of food, or to observe a fast on a few days of the
year. Enervated by such mode of life, it is not to be wondered at that
they by degrees give themselves up entirely to passions that call for
greater indulgence still. It is proper, therefore, to recall to
temperance those who have fallen into or are inclined to effeminacy; and
for this reason those who are to address the people must carefully and
minutely teach them what is a command not only of the law of the gospel
but of natural reason as well, that every one ought to exercise
self-control and hold his passions in subjection; that sins are not
expiated except by penance. And that this virtue may be of enduring
character, it will not be an unsuitable provision to place it as it were
in the trust and keeping of an institution having a permanent character.
You readily understand, Venerable Brethren, to what we refer; namely, to
your perseverance--each in his own diocese--in protecting and extending
the Third, or _secular_, Order of St. Francis. Surely, to preserve and
foster the spirit of penance among Christians, there will be great aid
in the examples and favor of the Patriarch Francis of Assisi, who to the
greatest innocence of life joined a studious chastisement of himself so
that he seemed to bear the image of Jesus Christ crucified not less in
his life and customs than in the signs that were divinely impressed upon
him. The laws of that order, which have been by us suitably tempered,
are very easily observed; their importance to Christian virtue is by no
means slight.
Secondly, in so great private and public needs, since the whole hope of
salvation lies in the favor and keeping of our Heavenly Father, we
greatly wish the revival of a constant and confiding habit of prayer. In
every great crisis of the Christian commonwealth, whenever it happened
to the Church to be pressed by external or internal dangers, our
ancestors raising suppliant eyes to Heaven have signally taught in what
way and from whence were to be sought strong virtue and suitable aid.
Minds were thoroughly imbued with those precepts of Jesus Christ, "Ask
and it shall be given you;" (Matt. vii. 7.) "We ought always to pray and
to fail not." (Luke xviii. 1.) Consonant with this is the voice of the
Apostles, "pray without ceasing;" (1 Thessal. v. 17.) "I desire,
therefore, first of all that supplications, prayers, intercessions and
thanksgivings be made for all men." (1 Tim. ii. 1.) On this point John
Chrysostom has left us, with not less acuteness than truth, the
following comparison: as to man, when he comes naked and needing
everything in the world, nature has given hands by the aid of which to
procure what is necessary for life, so in those things that are above
nature, since of himself he can do nothing, God has bestowed on him the
faculty of prayer by the wise use of which he may easily obtain all that
is required for salvation. And in these matters let all of you
determine, Venerable Brethren, how pleasing and satisfactory to us is
the care you have, with our initiative, taken to promote the devotion of
the Holy Rosary, especially in these recent years. Nor can we pass over
in silence the general piety awakened in the people nearly everywhere in
that matter: nevertheless the greatest care is to be taken that this
devotion be made still more ardent and lasting. If we continue to urge
this, as we have more than once done already, none of you will be
surprised, understanding as you do of how much moment it is that the
practice of the Rosary of Mary should flourish among Christians, and
knowing well, as you do, that it is a very beautiful form and part of
that very spirit of prayer of which we speak, and that it is suitable to
the times, easily practiced, and of most abundant usefulness.
But since the first and chief fruit of a Jubilee, as we have above
pointed out, ought to be amendment of life and an increase of virtue, we
consider especially necessary the avoidance of that evil which we have
not failed to designate in previous Encyclical letters. We mean the
internal and nearly domestic dissensions of some of our own, which
dissolve, or certainly relax, the bond of charity, with an almost
inexpressible harm. We have here mentioned this matter again to you,
Venerable Brethren, guardians of ecclesiastical discipline and mutual
charity, because we wish your watchfulness and authority continually
applied to the abolition of this grave disadvantage. Admonishing,
exhorting, reproving, work to the end that all be "solicitous to
preserve unity of the spirit in the bond of peace," and that those may
return to duty who are the cause of dissension, keeping in mind in every
step of life that the only-begotten Son of God at the very approach of
his supreme agonies sought nothing more ardently from his Father than
that those should love one another who believed or were to believe in
him, "that they all may be one as thou, Father, in me, and I in thee,
that they also may be one in us." (John xvii. 21.)
Therefore trusting in the mercy of Almighty God and the authority of the
blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, of that power of binding and loosing
which the Lord has conferred on us though unworthy, we grant to each and
every one of the faithful of both sexes a plenary indulgence according
to the manner of a general Jubilee, on the condition and law that within
the space of the next year, 1886, they shall do the things that are
written further on.
All those residing in Rome, or visiting the city, shall go twice to the
Lateran, Vatican and Liberian Basilicas, and shall therein for awhile
pour out pious prayers for the prosperity and exaltation of the Catholic
Church and the Apostolic See, for the extirpation of heresies and the
conversion of all the erring, for concord of Christian Princes, and the
peace and unity of the whole people of the faith, according to our
intention. They shall fast, using only fasting food (_cibis
esurialibus_), two days outside of those not comprehended in the Lenten
indult, and outside of other days consecrated by precept of the Church
to a similar strict fast; besides they shall, having rightly confessed
their sins, receive the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist, and shall
according to their means, using the advice of the confessor, make an
offering to some pious work pertaining to the propagation and increase
of the Catholic Faith. Let it be free to every one to choose what pious
work he may prefer; we think it well however to designate two specially,
on which beneficence will be well bestowed, both, in many places,
needing resources and aid, both fruitful to the State not less than the
Church, namely _private schools for children_ and _Clerical Seminaries_.
All others living anywhere outside of the city, shall go _twice_ to
three churches to be designated by you, Venerable Brethren, or your
Vicars or Officials, or with your or their mandate by those exercising
care of souls; if there are but two churches in the place, _three
times_; if but one, _six times_, all within the above-mentioned time;
they must perform also the other works mentioned. This indulgence we
wish also applicable by way of suffrage to the souls that have departed
from this life united to God by charity. We also grant power to you to
reduce the number of these visits according to prudent judgment for
chapters and congregations, whether secular or regular, sodalities,
confraternities, universities, and any other bodies visiting in
procession the churches mentioned.
We grant that those on sea, and travellers when they return to their
residences, or to any other certain stopping-place, visiting _six times_
the principal church or a parochial church, and performing the other
works above prescribed, may gain the same indulgence. To regulars, of
both sexes, also those living perpetually in the cloister, and to all
other persons, whether lay or ecclesiastic, who by imprisonment,
infirmity, or any other just cause are prevented from doing the above
works or some of them, we grant that a confessor may commute them into
other works of piety, the power being also given of dispensing as to
Communion in the case of children not yet admitted to first Communion.
Moreover to each and every one of the faithful, whether laymen or
ecclesiastics, secular and regular, of whatsoever order and institute,
even those to be specially named, we grant the faculty of choosing any
confessor, secular or regular, among those actually approved; which
faculty may be used also by religious, novices and other women living
within the cloister, provided the confessor be one approved for
religious. We also give to confessors, on this occasion, and during the
time of this Jubilee only, all those faculties which we bestowed in our
letters Apostolic _Pontifices maximi_ dated February 15, 1879, all those
things excepted which are excepted in the same letters.
For the rest let all take care to obtain merit with the great Mother of
God by special homage and devotion during this time. For we wish this
sacred Jubilee to be under the patronage of the Holy Virgin of the
_Rosary_, and with her aid we trust that there shall be not a few whose
souls shall obtain remission of sin and expiation, and be by faith,
piety, justice, renewed not only to hope of eternal salvation, but also
to presage of a more peaceful age.
Auspicious of these heavenly benefits, and in witness of our paternal
benevolence, we affectionately in the Lord impart to you, and the clergy
and people intrusted to your fidelity and vigilance, the Apostolic
Benediction.
Given at Rome at St. Peter's the 22d day of December, 1885, of Our
Pontificate the Eighth year.