Jubilee in the Catholic Church

A jubilee is a special year of remission of sins, debts and universal pardon. In the Book of Leviticus, a jubilee year is mentioned as occurring every 50th year (after 49 years, 7×7, as per Leviticus 25:8) during which slaves and prisoners would be freed, debts would be forgiven, and the mercies of God would be particularly manifest.

In Western Christianity, the tradition dates to 1300, when Pope Boniface VIII convoked a holy year, following which ordinary jubilees have generally been celebrated every 25 or 50 years, with additional "extraordinary" jubilees declared depending on the need. Catholic jubilees, particularly in the Latin Church, generally involve a pilgrimage to a sacred site, normally the city of Rome.

The most recent ordinary holy year was the Jubilee Year of Hope, which commenced on 24 December 2024 and ended on 6 January 2026. The present extraordinary holy year is the Extraordinary Jubilee of St. Francis, which commenced on 10 January 2026, and will be concluded on 10 January 2027. It is currently planned to have a holy year on an extraordinary jubilee in 2033 to commemorate the 2,000th anniversary of the death and resurrection of Jesus.