We are already six weeks into the Great Jubilee Year 2000. For Y2K, millennial parties or even graduation from Notre Dame, we have waited and planned for years. But as Christians, we have also been preparing for the Great Jubilee that is a part of this historical year.

A tradition with its roots in the Hebrew Scriptures and its beginning (for Christians) in A.D. 1300, the Jubilee is a year in which debts both spiritual and material are forgiven. In the ancient Hebrew tradition, land was not farmed and everyone's debts of land or money were cancelled. Since the 14th century, special indulgences have been granted to pilgrims visiting sacred sites and forgiving their debtors. Originally once a century, the Jubilee now occurs every 50 years. This year is no exception.

Pope John Paul II asked the leaders of the world's nations to participate in this ancient tradition by forgiving international debts. Most complied immediately. Even the champion of capitalism and usury, the United States, agreed to forgive billions of dollars in debt to the poorest of nations. The Holy Father and the bishops of our Church have asked that everyone adopt the same penitential and charitable actions.

Which brings us to Notre Dame. Most demanding curriculum of any undergraduate school in the country; world-renowned in theology, philosophy, architecture, law and athletics; third largest university endowment in the country (15th in the world); and an annual operating budget more than 220 percent that of the Vatican City. There is no question that Notre Dame is one of the premier institutions of Catholic education in the world. It is also the wealthiest.

Every year approximately 65 percent of the student body receives financial aid in the form of scholarships, loans and work-study. It normally takes 10 years to pay off these debts, which typically amount to between $20,000 and $25,000. Many of our students don't need the maximum allowance for loans, but assuming that everyone who relieved financial aid were indebted to the fullest, the University of Notre Dame would be able to forgive their students' debts entirely from its annual surplus in less than three years.

I stress that this debt forgiveness that I suggest would come from surplus and not even the endowment or actual budget of the University. Christ says in the Gospels that the poor widow's mite was worth all the more because it was all she had, while the rich man who gave out of his surplus would not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. So what I am asking is hardly anything … if the University's administrators really wanted to show their faith, it would be a reduction of overhead expenses to increase free grant aid to all students who have the need.

Forget Ex Corde Ecclesiae. If the University wants to be true to its Catholic character, it shouldn't even question bending over backwards to ensure that all of its current students and indebted alumni are forgiven their trespasses so that they might go about forgiving the debts and trespasses of others.

• Jubilee justice, ND style