Does the Church have any power or jurisdiction of souls in Purgatory?

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AltarSoldier

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I come across this prayer in some prayer sites and it goes as followed
I adore You, oh Glorious Cross, Which was adorned with the Heart and the Body of my Savior, Jesus Christ, stained and covered with Blood. I adore You, oh Holy Cross out of love for Him, who is my Savior and my God.
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Pope Pius IX declared that reciting this prayer 5 times on Friday, will free 5 souls in purgatory, and 33 souls by reciting this prayer on Good Friday: This prayer should be recited before a crucifix with contrite heart and praying a few moments for the Poor Soul in Purgatory

I was wondering if this is actually true. I mean, the Church having the infinite treasury of the merits of Jesus Christ I would be inclined to believe especially since the Church gave us the Jubilee year which expiates all of our sins and the temporal punishment of our sins just by walking through the Holy doors at any basilica or cathedral on top of meeting the requirements like confession, communion, praying for the Pope etc so I was curious to see if the Church has such power that we can automatically release souls from purgatory just by reciting a prayer this like this with a contrite heart because the Magisterium says it
 
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I don’t know, but I hope you get an answer. I would definitely pray this, if it releases souls from purgatory. These kinds of things seem foreign to me. Like I wonder about the mechanics of them. Or something like the rosary saving souls. How exactly does that work??!
 
AltarSoldier said:
I come across this prayer in some prayer sites and it goes as followed
I adore You, oh Glorious Cross, Which was adorned with the Heart and the Body of my Savior, Jesus Christ, stained and covered with Blood. I adore You, oh Holy Cross out of love for Him, who is my Savior and my God.
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We can only pray for the souls in Purgatory.

The Church has no power over the souls in Purgatory.
Only God decides who and when a soul moves from Purgatory to Heaven.
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Promises such as “free X souls from Purgatory” are bunk, have never enjoyed Church approval, and should be ignored. @Tis_Bearself may know more.
 
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A plenary indulgence requires the person completing it to be free from all attachment to sin. It is very hard to complete one, though as long as you are in a state of grace, a defective plenary indulgence attempt still obtains a partial indulgence.
 
Lucy_1 said:
I don’t know, but I hope you get an answer. I would definitely pray this, if it releases souls from purgatory. These kinds of things seem foreign to me. Like I wonder about the mechanics of them. Or something like the rosary saving souls. How exactly does that work??!
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Catechism of the Catholic Church
1471 The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance.

What is an indulgence?

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."81
"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin."82 Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead.

1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.89

1479 Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.
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Lucy_1 said:
So saying that Pope Pius IX said it is a false claim?
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Let us put it this way. NOBODY, not even a Pope, has any power over those in Purgatory.
We should pray daily for the souls in Purgatory but neither the Church, nor a Pope, nor we have any power or control over when a soul leaves Purgatory for Heaven.
That is entirely in the hands of God.
 
Unless there is a link to an actual letter or declaration of Pope Pius IX where he states this, then it’s likely something that was made up and circulated by some author in the 1800s or early 1900s and now thanks to the Internet will just keep circulating forever.

As noted in the article on St. Gertrude, there are tons of old prayer cards with these sorts of unsupported claims that Pope so-and-so or Saint so-and-so allegedly said that this prayer would free X number of souls. It’s okay to say the prayer but we have no idea how many souls it might help or to what degree.
 
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The Church does not have jurisdiction over the souls in Purgatory. That’s why the Church teaches that indulgences for the dead are applied “by way of suffrage” (meaning a petitionary prayer) (see Code of Canon Law 994)

Cardinal Lepicier explains in his treatise: "Indulgences, their origin, nature, and development”
12.Yet, we should observe with St. Bonaventure, that the souls in Purgatory are united to the Militant Church by the bonds of charity, not by the chains of true subjection. As soon as a soul departs this life, it ceases to be subject to the jurisdiction of the Church, and is submitted immediately to God’s tribunal. Hence, the Church can pronounce on the faithful departed no juridical sentence, no formal judgment, no direct absolution : this God alone can now do. Yet, she can help them by way of suffrage, offering, or impetration ; that is, she can draw from off her own treasury the merits of Christ, and offer them to God, praying Him to accept these suffrages in their behalf And in this indirect manner, the Church helps the souls of her children that are detained in the flames of Purgatory.

As regards the power of the Keys of the Church, the intention of the donor, and the abundance of the merits of Christ and of His saints, an Indulgence applied to the souls in Purgatory should have the same effect as if it were applied to the faithful on earth. But with God’s intention, on whom the application entirely depends, it is not so.

For, although we may have a confident trust that God will take into account our good wishes and supplications, yet He has not pledged Himself irrevocably to do so, at least in the measure which we ask ; so that we cannot infallibly be certain that such a soul, for which we have, by fulfilling all the conditions, gained, for instance, a plenary Indulgence, is at once on equal terms with the Justice of God and ushered into Paradise. In fact, that should be said of Indulgences which the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences declared about the privilege annexed to some altars, viz., that “in its real application it is a pardon, the measure of which corresponds to the good pleasure of Divine Mercy, and to His acceptance of the satisfaction which is offered to Him.”
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