Couple indulgences questions

[fish90]

1.) Can you gain an indulgence for someone else?

2.) Is giving money still a way to gain an indulgence? I remember hearing it was, but the Church likes to avoid them for obvious reasons.

Best,
fish90

 

[markomalley]

1.) Can you gain an indulgence for someone else?

n. 3—Partial as well as plenary indulgences can always be applied to the dead by way of suffrage.

- Paul VI, Ap. Const. Indulgentiarum Doctrina (Norm #3)
​

2.) Is giving money still a way to gain an indulgence? I remember hearing it was, but the Church likes to avoid them for obvious reasons.

Whereas the power of conferring Indulgences was granted by Christ to the Church; and she has, even in the most ancient times, used the said power, delivered unto her of God; the sacred holy Synod teaches, and enjoins, that the use of Indulgences, for the Christian people most salutary, and approved of [Page 278] by the authority of sacred Councils, is to be retained in the Church; and It condemns with anathema those who either assert, that they are useless; or who deny that there is in the Church the power of granting them. In granting them, however, It desires that, in accordance with the ancient and approved custom in the Church, moderation be observed; lest, by excessive facility, ecclesastical discipline be enervated. And being desirous that the abuses which have crept therein, and by occasion of which this honourable name of Indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, be amended and corrected, It ordains generally by this decree, that all evil gains for the obtaining thereof,–whence a most prolific cause of abuses amongst the Christian people has been derived,–be wholly abolished…

- Council of Trent, 25th Session, Decree on Indulgences.
​

2121 Simony is defined as the buying or selling of spiritual things.53 To Simon the magician, who wanted to buy the spiritual power he saw at work in the apostles, St. Peter responded: “Your silver perish with you, because you thought you could obtain God’s gift with money!” 54 Peter thus held to the words of Jesus: "You received without pay, give without pay."55 It is impossible to appropriate to oneself spiritual goods and behave toward them as their owner or master, for they have their source in God. One can receive them only from him, without payment.

- Catechism of the Catholic Church
​

The bottom line is that the buying and selling of indulgences is a grave sin and always has been. Having said that, there were abuses that led to the decree of the Council of Trent, but those were recognized, even at that time, as abuses.

 

[Ron_Conte]

1.) Can you gain an indulgence for someone else?

Not for anyone who is living, but only for yourself or a deceased soul in Purgatory.

2.) Is giving money still a way to gain an indulgence? I remember hearing it was, but the Church likes to avoid them for obvious reasons.

The Church can offer an indulgence for prayer, self-denial, or works of mercy, and almsgiving is among the works of mercy. So it is possible for the Church to offer an indulgence for almsgiving.

But the sale of indulgences is absolutely prohibited as the sin of Simony.

 

[fish90]

O no, I did not mean to convey simony. I was thinking along the lines of almsgiving as you say. For instance, donating some money for a Church cause. Is that what you mean by almsgiving?

Best,
fish90

 

[markomalley]

O no, I did not mean to convey simony. I was thinking along the lines of almsgiving as you say. For instance, donating some money for a Church cause. Is that what you mean by almsgiving?

Best,
fish90

I personally think it goes against the spirit of the matter to consider alms. To my knowledge, there are not any grants out there, either for plenary or partial indulgences, regarding almsgiving. Here are the grants from the 1986 edition of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (the current 1999 edition is not online in English as of yet). There are none listed in that edition. Prayers, pilgrimages, and fasts are listed…not alms.

I, frankly, doubt that almsgiving, in of itself, would ever be given a grant. Just due to past history and the really, really bad vibes that would happen.

 

[Bookcat]

I personally think it goes against the spirit of the matter to consider alms. To my knowledge, there are not any grants out there, either for plenary or partial indulgences, regarding almsgiving. Here are the grants from the 1986 edition of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (the current 1999 edition is not online in English as of yet). There are none listed in that edition. Prayers, pilgrimages, and fasts are listed…not alms.

I, frankly, doubt that almsgiving, in of itself, would ever be given a grant. Just due to past history and the really, really bad vibes that would happen.

Actually in a way there IS an indulgence for almsgiving! A partial indulgence.

In the General Grants is this one:

General Grant II

A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who, led by the spirit of faith give compassionately of themselves or of their goods to serve their brothers in need.

The explanation adds that this particular indulgence is not for all works of charity…but when it is serving brothers in need…

tis in the Manual of Indulgences …and has been a grant for many years… under the general grants…

I encourage all to get the book from the USCCB publisher …

 

[markomalley]

Actually in a way there IS an indulgence for almsgiving! A partial indulgence.

In the General Grants is this one:

General Grant II

A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful who, led by the spirit of faith give compassionately of themselves or of their goods to serve their brothers in need.

The explanation adds that this particular indulgence is not for all works of charity…but when it is serving brothers in need…

tis in the Manual of Indulgences …and has been a grant for many years… under the general grants…

I encourage all to get the book from the USCCB publisher …

Thanks.