In my humble opinion 2016 is too early.
The proper and great Jubilee year of mercy will be 2033, the bi-millennial celebration of the death of Our Lord.
Why is no one talking about that? It's only seventeen years away!
Pope John Paul II started preparing for the year 2000 Jubilee as far back as 1979, with his first encyclical, over twenty-one years before the fact!
Here is the first paragraph of that encyclical: Redemptor Hominis.
I. INHERITANCE
1. At the close of the second Millennium
THE REDEEMER OF MAN, Jesus Christ, is the centre of the universe and of history. To him go my thoughts and my heart in this solemn moment of the world that the Church and the whole family of present-day humanity are now living. In fact, this time, in which God in his hidden design has entrusted to me, after my beloved Predecessor John Paul I, the universal service connected with the Chair of Saint Peter in Rome, is already very close to the year 2000. At this moment it is difficult to say what mark that year will leave on the face of human history or what it will bring to each people, nation, country and continent, in spite of the efforts already being made to foresee some events. For the Church, the People of God spread, although unevenly, to the most distant limits of the earth, it will be the year of a great Jubilee. We are already approaching that date, which, without prejudice to all the corrections imposed by chronological exactitude, will recall and reawaken in us in a special way our awareness of the key truth of faith which Saint John expressed at the beginning of his Gospel: "The Word became flesh and dwelt among us"1, and elsewhere: "God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life"2.
The Holy Year presently called for by Pope Francis coincides with...nothing,...except perhaps the bi-millennium of Christ's 16th birthday! His Sweet Sixteen! But in Argentina they celebrate sweet fifteens, and that, only for girls. So, even for that we are a year late and wrong gender.
However, having said that, every year is a year of mercy, (Anno Domini, year of salvation!) and the Holy Father can call a Holy Year at will. It is one of his many prerogatives as the Supreme Pontiff. But he does look like he has an agenda with this one.
Pope Francis is a typical Latin American parish priest who carelessly bulldozes millennial traditions in order to be with the people. It is an emergency--constant crisis management--style of ministry. Most parishes in America (and probably in Argentina for that matter) would throw you out for not honoring their long-revered Catholic customs. What makes Pope Francis think that the Christian customs of Rome and of "the bishop of Rome" are any different and should be ignored?...for the sake of the people.
One additional example is the typical priestly greeting which has been used also by Popes from time immemorial: "Laudetur Jesus Christus!" Or, in Italian, "Sia Lodato Gesu Cristo!" Pope Francis never uses it to greet the people! He simply says: "Brothers and sisters, good morning",..."good lunch",.."good siesta", or another such banality...and the people supposedly love it! Well, not all people!
