Jubilee 2025: 1700 year anniversary of the Council of Nicaea

 We have seen recently the date that marks the 1700 year anniversary of the Council of Nicaea, and the Creed that the fathers of that Council promulgated. Pope Francis referred to this anniversary in his Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year (n.17).

The Council of Nicaea sought to preserve the Church’s unity, which was seriously threatened by the denial of the full divinity of Jesus Christ and hence his consubstantiality with the Father. Some three hundred bishops took part, convoked at the behest of the Emperor Constantine; their first meeting took place in the Imperial Palace on 20 May 325. After various debates, by the grace of the Spirit they unanimously approved the Creed that we still recite each Sunday at the celebration of the Eucharist. The Council Fathers chose to begin that Creed by using for the first time the expression “ We believe”, as a sign that all the Churches were in communion and that all Christians professed the same faith.

Pope Francis drew attention to the ecumenical implications of the anniversary, as did Pope Leo XIV in his meeting with representatives of other Churches and Ecclesial Communities, as well as other religions, who had attended the inauguration of his pontificate:

The Council of Nicaea was a milestone in the Church’s history. The celebration of its anniversary invites Christians to join in a hymn of praise and thanksgiving to the Blessed Trinity and in particular to Jesus Christ, the Son of God, “consubstantial with the Father”, who revealed to us that mystery of love. At the same time, Nicaea represents a summons to all Churches and Ecclesial Communities to persevere on the path to visible unity and in the quest of finding ways to respond fully to the prayer of Jesus “that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me” ( Jn 17:21). 

 And in the words of Pope Leo XIV:

My election has taken place during the year of the 1700th anniversary of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea. That Council represents a milestone in the formulation of the Creed shared by all Churches and Ecclesial Communities. While we are on the journey to re-establishing full communion among all Christians, we recognise that this unity can only be unity in faith. As Bishop of Rome, I consider one of my priorities to be that of seeking the re-establishment of full and visible communion among all those who profess the same faith in God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

 A "Creed", such as that of Nicaea, can also be referred to as a "profession of faith". This latter designation draws attention to a two-fold aspect of such a formulation - the content expressed in the text, and the affirmation by the faithful of their adherence to that content. A moving instance of such a profession of faith, in this second sense, is to be found in that made by Pope St Paul VI on 30th June 1968 as he closed the Nineteenth Centenary of the martryrdom of St Peter and St Paul, and which has since come to be known as The "Credo" of the People of God.

Furthermore, We consider it Our duty to fulfil the mandate given by Christ to Peter, whose successor We are in spite of Our unworthiness - the command "to confirm Our brethren" in faith. Therefore, although We are conscious of Our inadequacy, We nonetheless will make a profession of faith with all the strength that our Spirit draws from the mandate We have received. We are going to repeat that declaration that begins with the word "Credo" which, though it is not a strict dogmatic definition, still, rightly interpreted in accordance with the spiritual requirements of our times, recapitulates in substance the formulation of Nicaea - the formulation of the immortal tradition of the Holy Church of God.

Expanding from the profession of faith that is now recited at Mass, Pope St Paul VI offers a beautiful and wide ranging summary of Catholic belief that will reward a re-reading. 

Jubilee disregarded

 From Pope Francis' Bull of Indiction for the Jubilee Year 2025, with my emphasis added:

16. Echoing the age-old message of the prophets, the Jubilee reminds us that the goods of the earth are not destined for a privileged few, but for everyone. The rich must be generous and not avert their eyes from the faces of their brothers and sisters in need. Here I think especially of those who lack water and food: hunger is a scandal, an open wound on the body of our humanity, and it summons all of us to a serious examination of conscience. I renew my appeal that “with the money spent on weapons and other military expenditures, let us establish a global fund that can finally put an end to hunger and favour development in the most impoverished countries, so that their citizens will not resort to violent or illusory situations, or have to leave their countries in order to seek a more dignified life”.

 From a BBC News report of President Trump's recent visit to Saudi Arabia, again with my emphasis added:

US President Donald Trump has said the US has "no stronger partner" than Saudi Arabia during his first major foreign trip - a whirlwind visit of Gulf countries mainly focused on shoring up investment.

Day one of the trip saw the two sides announce a $142bn (£107bn) arms deal, as well as a raft of other investments that Saudi Arabia's crown prince said could eventually be worth $1tn.

Jubilee of Confraternities

 The days 16th-18th May 2025 are to be marked as a Jubilee of Confraternities. The programme for the grand procession of several confraternities gives an idea of the range of groups that will be taking part, and of the different devotional inspiration of the confraternities involved. The spirituality and processions that are typical of these confraternities can be described as exemplifying the idea of "popular piety".

Pope Francis dedicated a section (nn.122-126) of his Apostolic Exhortation Evangelii Gaudium to "The evangelizing power of popular piety".

 Popular piety enables us to see how the faith, once received, becomes embodied in a culture and is constantly passed on. Once looked down upon, popular piety came to be appreciated once more in the decades following the Council. In the Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi (n.48), Pope Paul VI gave a decisive impulse in this area. There he stated that popular piety “manifests a thirst for God which only the poor and the simple can know” and that “it makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice even to the point of heroism, when it is a question of bearing witness to belief”. Closer to our own time, Benedict XVI, speaking about Latin America, pointed out that popular piety is “a precious treasure of the Catholic Church”, in which “we see the soul of the Latin American peoples”.

During the Year of Faith, a day was also dedicated as a Day for Confraternities and Popular Piety. Preaching on that occasion, Pope Francis referred to two expressions that Pope Benedict XVI had used in talking of popular piety:

 Here we are shown the centre from which everything must go forth and to which everything must lead: loving God and being Christ’s disciples by living the Gospel. When Benedict XVI spoke to you, he used this expression: evangelical spirit. Dear confraternities, the popular piety of which you are an important sign is a treasure possessed by the Church, which the bishops of Latin America defined, significantly, as a spirituality, a form of mysticism, which is “a place of encounter with Jesus Christ”. Draw always from Christ, the inexhaustible wellspring; strengthen your faith by attending to your spiritual formation, to personal and communitarian prayer, and to the liturgy. Down the centuries confraternities have been crucibles of holiness for countless people who have lived in utter simplicity an intense relationship with the Lord. Advance with determination along the path of holiness; do not rest content with a mediocre Christian life, but let your affiliation serve as a stimulus, above all for you yourselves, to an ever greater love of Jesus Christ. ...

... a second element which I want to remind you of, as Benedict XVI did, [is]: ecclesial spirit. Popular piety is a road which leads to what is essential, if it is lived in the Church in profound communion with your pastors. Dear brothers and sisters, the Church loves you! Be an active presence in the community, as living cells, as living stones. The Latin American Bishops wrote that the popular piety which you reflect is “a legitimate way of living the faith, a way of feeling that we are part of the Church” (Aparecida Document, 264). 

Pope Francis continued to add a third expression:

 I would like to add a third expression which must distinguish you: missionary spirit. You have a specific and important mission, that of keeping alive the relationship between the faith and the cultures of the peoples to whom you belong. You do this through popular piety. When, for example, you carry the crucifix in procession with such great veneration and love for the Lord, you are not performing a simple outward act; you are pointing to the centrality of the Lord’s paschal mystery, his passion, death and resurrection which have redeemed us, and you are reminding yourselves first, as well as the community, that we have to follow Christ along the concrete path of our daily lives so that he can transform us. Likewise, when you express profound devotion for the Virgin Mary, you are pointing to the highest realization of the Christian life, the one who by her faith and obedience to God’s will, and by her meditation on the words and deeds of Jesus, is the Lord’s perfect disciple (cf. Lumen Gentium, 53). You express this faith, born of hearing the word of God, in ways that engage the senses, the emotions and the symbols of the different cultures … In doing so you help to transmit it to others, and especially the simple persons whom, in the Gospels, Jesus calls “the little ones”. In effect, “journeying together towards shrines, and participating in other demonstrations of popular piety, bringing along your children and engaging other people, is itself a work of evangelization” (Aparecida Document, 264).

 At a parish level, the devotion of those who, before or after Sunday Mass, light a candle before a statue of the Virgin Mary or the parish patron saint comes to mind as we reflect on the value of popular piety.

Jubilee of the Eastern Churches

 The days 12th - 14th May 2025 are due to be marked as a Jubilee of the Eastern Churches. The proposed programme of events in Rome for this Jubilee recognises a particular gift of the Eastern Churches, namely, their liturgical rites, though by the time that this post publishes the programme may have been "modified" in the light of "events".

The existence of a dicastery of the Holy See dedicated to the relationship of the Holy See to Eastern Catholic Churches dates as far back as Pope Benedict XV in 1917. It is now known as the Dicastery for the Eastern Churches. In Rome there is a presence of the Eastern Churches in the Pontifical Oriental Institute, a mission of the Gregorian University; and in colleges affiliated to different Eastern Churches. The faithful of the Eastern Churches live not only in the geographical territories particularly associated with their rites but frequently in diaspora communities spread throughout the world. For many of us, our encounters with the faithful of these Churches occur by way of the parishes making provision for these diaspora communities. The suffering of these communities in former Communist countries and, today, in the countries of the Middle East contributes to the existence of diaspora communities. In the Bull of Indiction Pope Francis extended a particular invitation to them to take part in the Jubilee:

In a particular way, I would like to invite the faithful of the Eastern Churches, particularly those already in full communion with the Successor of Peter, to take part in this pilgrimage. They have suffered greatly, often even unto death, for their fidelity to Christ and the Church, and so they should feel themselves especially welcome in this City of Rome that is also their Mother and cherishes so many memories of their presence. The Catholic Church, enriched by their ancient liturgies and the theology and spirituality of their Fathers, monks and theologians, wants to give symbolic expression to its embrace of them and their Orthodox brothers and sisters in these times when they endure their own Way of the Cross, often forced by violence and instability to leave their homelands, their holy lands, for safer places. For them, the hope born of the knowledge that they are loved by the Church, which does not abandon them but follows them wherever they go, will make the symbolism of the Jubilee all the more powerful.

The Second Vatican Council addressed the Catholic Eastern Churches in its Decree Orientalium Ecclesiarum. 

History, tradition and abundant ecclesiastical institutions bear outstanding witness to the great merit owing to the Eastern Churches by the universal Church. The Sacred Council, therefore, not only accords to this ecclesiastical and spiritual heritage the high regard which is its due and rightful praise, but also unhesitatingly looks on it as the heritage of the universal Church. For this reason it solemnly declares that the Churches of the East, as much as those of the West, have a full right and are in duty bound to rule themselves, each in accordance with its own established disciplines, since all these are praiseworthy by reason of their venerable antiquity, more harmonious with the character of their faithful and more suited to the promotion of the good of souls (n.5).

Pope St John Paul II visited Lebanon in May 1997, a visit which marked the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation Une esperance nouvelle pour le Liban that concluded a special Assembly for Lebanon of the Synod of Bishops. Preaching on that occasion, the Holy Father greeted the different Churches of the region and recognised the suffering of the region:

These circumstances enable me to be in your land, for the first time, and to tell you of the love that the Church and the Apostolic See have for your nation, for all Lebanese: for the Catholics of the different rites — Maronite, Melkite, Armenian, Chaldean, Syrian, Latin; for the faithful belonging to the other Christian Churches; as well as for the Muslims and the Druze, who believe in the one God. From the bottom of my heart I greet you all on this very important occasion. We wish now to present to God the fruits of the Synod for Lebanon. ...

People often spoke of the "martyr Lebanon", especially during the period of war which afflicted your country more than ten years ago. In this historical context, the words of Saint Peter can well be applied to all who have suffered in this land. The Apostle writes: "In so far as you share in Christ's sufferings, rejoice because the Spirit of God rests upon you, and that is the Spirit of glory" (cf. ibid.). I am mindful that we are gathered near the historic heart of Beirut, Martyrs' Square; but you have also called it Freedom Square and Unity Square. I am certain that the sufferings of the past years will not be in vain; they will strengthen your freedom and unity.

This last paragraph continues to reflect the experience of the Churches in Lebanon.

Pope Benedict XVI, in convening a Special Assembly of the Synod of Bishops for the Middle East in October 2010, also reflected a concern of the Successor of Peter for the regions inhabited by the faithful of the Eastern Churches. As did his predecessor, Pope Benedict visited Beirut for the consigning of the resulting Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Medio Oriente.

96. Christ entrusted to Peter the specific mission of feeding his lambs (cf. Jn 21:15-17) and it is upon him that he built his Church (cf. Mt 16:18). As the Successor of Peter, I cannot overlook the trials and sufferings of Christ’s faithful and especially those who live in the Middle East. In a particular way, the Pope continues to be spiritually close to them. That is why, in the name of God, I ask the political and religious authorities of the Middle East not just to relieve these sufferings, but to eliminate the causes which produce them. I ask them to do all in their power to ensure that peace at last prevails.

97. Nor is the Pope unmindful that the Church – the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem – whose corner stone is Christ (1 Pet 2:4-7) and which he has received the mission to care for on earth, is built on foundations adorned with precious stones of various colours (cf. Rev 21:14, 19-20). The venerable Eastern Churches and the Latin Church are these brilliant jewels, worn down and made smooth by constant worship before “the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb”
(Rev 22:1).

 In Great Britain we can note the presence of the Ukranian Catholic Church and the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church. In both cases, there is an Eparchy - equivalent of a diocese - that covers the whole country. There is a mission of the Maronite Catholic Church, serving a diaspora community from Cyprus and from Lebanon; and a mission of the Melkite Church, also serving a diaspora community.

Jubilee of Bands and Popular Entertainment

The days 10th-11th May 2025 are due to be marked as the Jubilee of Bands and Popular Entertainment, with the invitation to take part extended especially to "all members of military, institutional, amateur, folk, village, sports, school and college bands ... together with their families". By the time that this post publishes, arrangements for the Jubilee events in Rome may have been "modified" in the light of events.

Towards the end of his chapter entitled "Music and Liturgy" (in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy), the then Cardinal Ratzinger suggested three criteria that might govern the music of Christian liturgical worship. 

It is related to the events of God's saving action to which the Bible bears witness and which the Liturgy makes present. God's action continues in the history of the Church, but has its unshakeable center int he Paschal Mystery of Jesus Christ, his Cross, Resurrection and Ascension. ... the relation of liturgical music to logos means, first of all, simply its relation to words. That is why singing in the liturgy has priority over instrumental music, though it does not in any way exclude it. It goes without saying that the biblical and liturgical texts are the normative words from which liturgical music has to take its bearings...

Prayer is a gift of the Holy Spirit, both prayer in general and that particular kind of prayer which is the gift of singing and playing before God. The Holy Spirit is love. He enkindles love in us and thus moves us to sing. ... Words are superseded, but not the Word, the Logos. ... The Church's tradition has this in mind when it talks about the sober inebriation caused in us by the Holy Spirit. ...

... Christian liturgy is always a cosmic liturgy... The Preface, the first part of the Eucharistic Prayer, always ends with the affirmation that we are singing "Holy, Holy, Holy" together with the cherubim and seraphim and with all the choirs of heaven ... In the celebration of Holy Mass, we insert ourselves into this liturgy that always goes before us. All our singing is a singing and praying with the great liturgy that spans the whole of creation.

Perhaps closer to the intended remit of this special Jubilee might be those initiatives that come under the umbrella of "music ministries", ministries which might, in addition to providing liturgical music in the stricter sense, also provide music for praise and worship outside the liturgy properly so called. CJM Music, based in Birmingham Archdiocese, is an example of one such initiative. Perhaps the most remarkable work from CJM Music is the presentation of the Stations of the Cross entitled Born for This. Now available as a set of resources to enable Church groups to put on their own presentation, it was initially presented each year during Lent by a CJM cast, in different locations in the UK. I recall taking part in one such presentation in Brentwood Cathedral several years ago. I also recall a CD of music for the Year of the Eucharist celebrated in 2004-5.

Certainly within the remit of the Jubilee are those initiatives that produce music that is more general in nature, and intended for wider entertainment, music that might be described as secular music. The range of such initiatives is very wide, and extends from local musical groups up to groups with a national or international reach. I expect that many different nations have celebrations of music, reflecting their own heritage, and rooted in particular regional or cultural contexts. The Whit Friday band contests that take place in the North West of England each year provide an unusual example of one such celebration, and have a parallel to the band concerts due to take place in squares throughout Rome as part of the Jubilee. This BBC news report of the 2024 contests describes the event and explains something of its historical background: Towns and villages gear up for Whit Friday brass band contests. At each contest, a band plays a piece as they march along the village street, before playing the contest piece for the judges.  I think this is a good Youtube video that gives an idea of the event - note the coaches that follow each band, ready to move them on to the next village for their next contest. The range of bands that take part in these contests really does reflect the range of bands anticipated in the invitation extended by this special Jubilee event, including as it does military bands, bands with national and international reputations, college bands and junior bands.

The joy that is to be found in events such as the Whit Friday band contests can perhaps be seen as a seed of the joy that is to be found in living the Gospel.

May the grace of the Jubilee

reawaken in us, Pilgrims of Hope,

a yearning for the treasures of heaven.

May the same grace spread

the joy and peace of our Redeemer

throughout the earth.

Jubilee of Entrepeneurs

 Immediately following the Jubilee of Workers, the Jubilee of Entrepreneurs is due to take place in the days 4th-5th May 2025. The close association of these two events does make sense, as it is the entrepreneur who can create opportunities for workers; and it is workers who can in many situations make things possible for an entrepreneur. In his encyclical Laborem Exercens, Pope St John Paul II drew attention to the human person who is the subject of the activity of work, and this is an aspect of commercial life that the entrepreneur is also called to respect.

....the primary basis of the value of work is man himself, who is its subject. This leads immediately to a very important conclusion of an ethical nature: however true it may be that man is destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is "for man" and not man "for work". Through this conclusion one rightly comes to recognize the pre-eminence of the subjective meaning of work over the objective one. Given this way of understanding things, and presupposing that different sorts of work that people do can have greater or lesser objective value, let us try nevertheless to show that each sort is judged above all by the measure of the dignity of the subject of work, that is to say the person, the individual who carries it out. On the other hand: independently of the work that every man does, and presupposing that this work constitutes a purpose-at times a very demanding one-of his activity, this purpose does not possess a definitive meaning in itself. In fact, in the final analysis it is always man who is the purpose of the work, whatever work it is that is done by man-even if the common scale of values rates it as the merest "service", as the most monotonous even the most alienating work.

A project of the Focolare Movement demonstrates how business owners can run companies in a way that respects both those who are employed in the company and the wider community within which the company might be inserted. It is called Economy of Communion in Freedom. The article The Economy of Communion takes flight gives an account of how the project began - note that the "little town" or "little city" referred to describes a small town in which members and collaborators of the Focolare Movement live together to foster communion: 

The fundamental nucleus of the Economy of Communion in Freedom (EoC) can be summarized in three concepts: there was to be an industrial park with productive businesses located close to the movement’s little town; economic resources must be entrusted to competent individuals; the profits must be shared: one part for persons in need, one part to be invested in the industry itself to ensure its growth, one part for the formation of a new generation for a new society. 

The main website  Economy of Communion in Freedom gives an idea of the life of the project today. Through the recognition that the human person is made for communion, central to the charism of the Focolare Movement, this project puts the human person at the centre of the commercial enterprise. The subject (in St John Paul II's sense) of entrepreneurship is the person of the entrepreneur; the subject of work is the person who is employed in the enterprise.

Jubilee of Workers

 The days 1st-4th May are being marked as a Jubilee of Workers. As the present Labour government came to power in the UK last summer, promises made with regard to "working people" prompted a debate about exactly who were the people being referred to by that phrase "working people". Whilst that debate had a very specific political context, it nevertheless indicated a change in working lives that has taken place over time. When Pope Leo XIII first addressed "the social question" in his encyclical Rerum Novarum it was a matter of addressing the impact of industrialisation and the move away from an agricultural or artisanal experience of work. Today, in many countries, it is a question of the development of a service economy alongside a reducing manufacturing base. The delineation of who is intended by the term "worker" might now be very different than it was in the past.

Pope St John Paul II marked the ninetieth anniversary of Rerum Novarum with his encyclical Laborem Exercens, on the nature of human work. The encyclical is a wide ranging account of the nature of work understood in the light of Biblical and Catholic teaching, and of the contrary trends that face such teaching. A notable distinction is drawn between work in the subjective sense, that is, seen as the person who acts in working; and work in its objective sense, that is, the type of work that is carried out.

When dealing with human work in the fundamental dimension of its subject, that is to say, the human person doing the work, one must make at least a summary evaluation of developments during the ninety years since Rerum Novarum in relation to the subjective dimension of work. Although the subject of work is always the same, that is to say man, nevertheless wide-ranging changes take place in the objective aspect. While one can say that, by reason of its subject, work is one single thing (one and unrepeatable every time), yet when one takes into consideration its objective directions one is forced to admit that there exist many works, many different sorts of work. The development of human civilization brings continual enrichment in this field. But at the same time, one cannot fail to note that in the process of this development not only do new forms of work appear but also others disappear. Even if one accepts that on the whole this is a normal phenomenon, it must still be seen whether certain ethically and socially dangerous irregularities creep in, and to what extent.

.... the primary basis of the value of work is man himself, who is its subject. This leads immediately to a very important conclusion of an ethical nature: however true it may be that man is destined for work and called to it, in the first place work is "for man" and not man "for work". Through this conclusion one rightly comes to recognize the pre-eminence of the subjective meaning of work over the objective one. Given this way of understanding things, and presupposing that different sorts of work that people do can have greater or lesser objective value, let us try nevertheless to show that each sort is judged above all by the measure of the dignity of the subject of work, that is to say the person, the individual who carries it out. 

 Madeleine Delbrel (1904-1964) lived and worked for many years in a suburb of Paris that was dominated in political terms by the Communist party. She can perhaps be described as a social worker and activist, recognising that, though she disagreed with Communism as an idea, the people who were Communists were nevertheless her neighbours. In 1961 she gave a talk in which she compared Communist hope (in French, espoir, a word expressing a human aspiration) and Christian hope (esperance, a word expressing more precisely the theological virtue of hope). The text of the talk can be found in the collection We, the Ordinary People of the Streets; it can represent for us a conversation between Christianity and a world of work where a practical atheism and materialism exists even if it is not supported by an explicitly Communist ideology.

The word "hope" [l'espoir] is too modest to express what the Communists wish for the future. It is also too weak. The French word "hope" [l'esperance] works better, but we cannot lose from sight even for a moment that Communist hope and Christian hope are two fundamentally different and opposed things.

The word "hope" applied to the Communists designates a human hope, a hope that concerns human objects. The word "hope" applied to the hope of the Christian is a reality that comes wholly from God, to which we do not as human being have a right. It concerns a supernatural hope, a divine hope, a hope that is bathed in the very mystery of God's inner life.

Madeleine Delbrel spells out the elements of the hope of the Communist - a hope for the poor, a hope for the future, a hope by the individual Communist for all those ways in which life might be better.  She explains how this hope is expressed in a Communist understanding of an evolving world.  She suggests that the encounter with Communist hope should prompt the Christian in a conversion towards genuinely Christian hope, a thought we might take up in a slightly different way in the context of our neighbour of today.

... it is not a matter of seeing in it a sort complement or even less a corrective of Christian hope. I would rather say that it is by a sort of backlash that Communist hope leads us to reexamine our hope and to reexamine the realism of our hope.

She concludes by suggesting that Christian hope needs to be attentive to the human hope for which it is a fulfilment.

... The Lord proclaims the eternal Beatitudes by appealing to those who weep and hope to stop weeping, who hope for peace, who hope for justice, who hope to escape from the extremes of poverty. These are the people he calls to Christian hope.