The First Jubilees Celebrated in the United States

Abstract

MISCELLANY THE FIRSTJUBILEES CELEBRATED IN THE UNITED STATES Robert Trisco* When on Christmas of 1775 Pope Pius VI extended the Jubilee to the following year for the entire Catholic world,1 the thirteen British colonies of North America had already begun the Revolutionary War, and communications between the American clergy and their ordinary, the VicarApostolic of the London District, were interrupted. The priests, all ex-Jesuits, continued, nevertheless , to labor under their local superior, who had been appointed by the Vicar Apostolic. After the Peace of Paris was signed, five of the priests, designated by the first General Chapter of the Clergy, met in November, 1783, and wrote a letter to the Pope, stating that they could no longer have recourse for their spiritual jurisdiction to a bishop or vicar apostolic living under a foreign government , and they requested not only that their ecclesiastical superior,John Lewis, be confirmed in office but also that the indulgences of the Jubilee of 1775 be granted to the American mission,"as well as such extension of faculties, as may seem good, to the missionaries in this extensive and very remote region, plagued by a long and bitter war with concurrent and continuing disturbances ." For that reason the Jubilee could not be promulgated here; still less could it be celebrated or benefited from.2 "Monsignor Trisco is the Kelly-Quinn Distinguished Professor of Church History in the Catholic University of America. He read an abridged version of this article in Italian at an international conference on "Jubilees in the History of the Church,"which was sponsored by the Pontifical Committee on Historical Sciences and held in Rome on June 23-26, 1999. The addition of pages to the January issue ofthe Catholic Historical Review to permit publication of this article has been financed by a subvention from the Anne M. Wolf Fund. The author expresses his gratitude to the referees for their helpful criticisms and suggestions. 'Bullarii Romani Continuatio, Vol. V, edd. Andrea Barberi and Alessandro Spetia (Rome, 1842), Const. LXXIII, pp. 180-185; Ludwig von Pastor, The History of the Popes, Vol. XXXLX: Pius VI. (1775-1799), trans. E. F. Peeler (reprinted Nendeln, Liechtenstein, 1969), p. 330. 2Peter Guilday, The Life and Times of John Caroll, Archbishop of Baltimore (1735-1815) (reprinted Westminster, Maryland, 1954), pp. 170-171; Thomas O'Brien Hanley, S.J. (ed), TheJohn Carroll Papers (3 vols; Notre Dame, Indiana, 1976), 1, 68-69. 85 86THE FIRSTJUBILEES CELEBRATED IN THE UNITED STATES Instead of Lewis the Holy See in 1784 appointedJohn Carroll superior of the missions. The prefect of the Congregation de Propaganda Fide, Cardinal Leonardo Antonelli, replied to Carroll that the Holy Father had extended the induit ofthe Jubilee to the thirteen states and that the time allowed to gain it was one year from the day on which Carroll would receive the letter.3 He received it on November 26, 1784.4 In the following January he sent the clergy a circular announcing the Jubilee and asking that the priests give the faithful under their care "such instruction, as may render them well acquainted with the nature, & advantage of a Jubilee, and of the necessary conditions for obtaining the benefit of it." The Holy Father had empowered him "to exchange the enjoined exercises of piety into other good works."Therefore, since the circumstances of the country did not permit the faithful to visit four different churches, Carroll directed (1) that the inhabitants oftowns in which there was a chapel convenient for the purpose, with the Blessed Sacrament reserved in it, had to visit the said chapel on fifteen successive or interrupted days and there devoutly recite either the Litany of the Saints or seven "Our Fathers" and seven "Hail Marys," etc., for the intention stated by the Pope; (2) that those who lived in the country or other places not having the convenience of a chapel with the Blessed Sacrament kept in it, or who lived in towns having such a chapel but were "deprived of all opportunity of visiting it, being servants or slaves," had likewise to recite the Litany of the Saints and the aforementioned prayers "for the space of fifteen days, either continued or interrupted...