JUBILATION, INDULT OF. - It is the papal indult by which prebendaries and beneficiaries of a Chapter are granted exemption from the obligations of choral service and residence, while retaining the rights corresponding to those obligations. It is also called an indult of emeritus (can. 422).
The institution appears already in some medieval chapter statutes. From the 17th century onward, the Sacred Congregation of the Council granted indulgences of jubilation and approved statutes that provided for their concession. Before the 1917 Code of Canon Law, however, jubilation was still a matter of particular law, governed by custom, the practice of the Sacred Congregation of the Council, and the tenor of the various chapter statutes.
The purposes of the institution are, on the one hand, the utility of the Church, and on the other, the just recognition of the merit of those who, for a considerable time, have diligently performed the service. Initially, the first purpose was considered predominant, so that only service rendered in the same church was taken into account. Later, the second purpose prevailed, so that service rendered in different churches was also considered sufficient grounds.
The indult does not belong by right but must be sought each time through a rescript of the Holy See. The title for obtaining jubilation is continuous, praiseworthy choral service of forty years, either in the same church or in other churches of the same city or, at least, of the same diocese (can. 422 § 1). Sometimes the Holy See has deemed service rendered in different dioceses sufficient. Absences due to major force or other legitimate causes do not interrupt the continuity of service. Illegitimate absences, however, especially if frequent and prolonged, not only disrupt the continuity of service but also deprive it of the qualification of praiseworthiness.
The subject capable of receiving the indult is the capitular, prebendary, or beneficiary who is bound to choral service, regardless of whether he holds the office of supernumerary, mansionary, or canon.
The object of the indult is the exemption of the jubilated from the common duties of residence and ordinary choral service and, consequently, from other burdens connected with these obligations. The specific obligations of individual prebends remain, such as, for example, the obligations of foundation Masses, the care of souls for the vicar curate, the catechetical and scriptural lectures for the theological canon, and the assistance with confessions for the penitentiary canon. Other exemptions, often contested in doctrine, such as from the conventual Mass turn, are usually specified in the rescript of concession.
The indult establishes a state of favor, in that the jubilated, although exempt from the obligations of office, retains its rights, with the exception of any right of option that may be recognized in the Chapter (can. 422 § 3). He remains, therefore, a true canon and true capitular: he receives the fruits of the prebend, the daily distributions, the *fallentiane*, and even the distributions reserved only for those present at choir (*inter praesentes*), unless explicitly excluded by the will of the donors or founders, or by the statutes or custom.