Help with indulgences

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rivera01

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I was reading the first few pages of the Enchiridion of Indulgences and a couple of questions came to mind. The Enchiridion states that in order to receive the plenary indulgence you have to meet these conditions:
  • have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;
  • have sacramentally confessed their sins;
  • receive the Holy Eucharist;
  • pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff.
  1. Is there a special dispensation given If we were to meet all the conditions, except taking communion due to COVID-19 lockdowns, to gain the plenary indulgence or would it be a partial indulgence?
  2. In order to obtain the indulgence do we need to be conscious that we are doing a certain prayer with that purpose or do we obtain it regardless of not being aware of it?
 
If you can’t meet all the requirements, then it’s a partial indulgence.

Your prayer intentions for the Pope must be exactly that & though I do personally keep the indulgence in mind.
 
rivera01 said:
  • Is there a special dispensation given If we were to meet all the conditions, except taking communion due to COVID-19 lockdowns, to gain the plenary indulgence or would it be a partial indulgence?
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If you cannot reasonably receive Communion right now due to COVID shutdown, then fulfill all the other conditions, make a spiritual communion, and ask your priest next time you go to confession to commute the condition of receiving physical communion. He’s allowed to do this under Norm 24 . I had to get my priest to commute a whole bunch of communions because our shutdown went on for 10 weeks and that was more communions than I could reasonably make up when church reopened.
In order to obtain the indulgence do we need to be conscious that we are doing a certain prayer with that purpose or do we obtain it regardless of not being aware of it?
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You have to have at least a general intention of earning indulgences when you say the prayer. A general intention would be something like telling God you wanted to earn all the indulgences you could that day, or that week, or that month. The traditional Morning Offering contains a line that goes, “And I desire to obtain every indulgence and merit I can…” so if a person said that prayer on a regular basis, they would clearly have general intent to earn indulgences wherever possible, even if they didn’t think about it specifically while they were saying a particular prayer.
 
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phil19034 said:
If you can’t meet all the requirements, then it’s a partial indulgence.
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If the person is legitimately impeded from fulfilling the confession or communion requirement because of a COVID shutdown, then they can ask their confessor to commute the condition under Norm 24 and once he does that the indulgences will become plenary.

In addition, in a couple of dioceses with COVID shutdowns (one is Madison, WI and another I believe is Baton Rouge, LA) bishops have issued a blanket permission for the faithful to get plenaries without confession or communion as long as they intend to return to those sacraments as soon as possible (this is allowed under Norm 25). The Pope also included such a permission in his Apostolic Decree in March providing for special coronavirus-related plenaries. However, it was not clear if the Pope expected the faithful to “make up” all the missed communions when public Mass resumed, since you normally need one communion per plenary, so just to be on the safe side, I had my priest commute them when the missed communions got too large in number to make up.
Your prayer intentions for the Pope must be exactly that & though I do personally keep the indulgence in mind.
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It’s not “prayer intentions for the Pope”, it’s “praying for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff” that is required for the indulgence. You can certainly also pray for the Pope himself and I do, but the “intentions of the Supreme Pontiff” are something different.

 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s not “prayer intentions for the Pope”, it’s “praying for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff” that is required for the indulgence. You can certainly also pray for the Pope himself and I do, but the “intentions of the Supreme Pontiff” are something different.
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true… thanks for that clarifying that. I was being lazy and typed the 4 letter word Pope because it was too lazy to type Supreme Pontiff.
 
You could also say “for the intentions of the Pope”.

The point is you’re not praying for the Pope himself, you’re praying for the Intentions of the Pope.

I’m making a point of this because many people including prayer group leaders get this wrong. I constantly hear rosary group leaders at the end of the Rosary leading prayers “For our Pope” in order to meet the indulgence condition. For about my first 30 indulgences I prayed “for the Pope” until one day I found that OnePeterFive article and only then did I understand what I was supposed to be praying for, which applies even when the Holy See is vacant between Popes.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
You could also say “for the intentions of the Pope”.

The point is you’re not praying for the Pope himself, you’re praying for the Intentions of the Pope.

I’m making a point of this because many people including prayer group leaders get this wrong. I constantly hear rosary group leaders at the end of the Rosary leading prayers “For our Pope” in order to meet the indulgence condition. For about my first 30 indulgences I prayed “for the Pope” until one day I found that OnePeterFive article and only then did I understand what I was supposed to be praying for, which applies even when the Holy See is vacant between Popes.
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exactly!

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rivera01 said:
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Normally the prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, the reception of Communion, and Confession is within about 20 days before or after the indulgenced act, but that has been modified when effected by the current virus situation “with the will to fulfill them as soon as possible”.

Edit: for only some that are eligible. See later post.
 
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Vico said:
Normally the prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, the reception of Communion, and Confession is within about 20 days before or after the indulgenced act, but that has been modified when effected by the current virus situation “with the will to fulfill them as soon as possible”.
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To my knowledge, it’s only been modified for the special coronavirus-related plenaries in the March 20, 2020 Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2020/03/20/200320c.html

Unless you have another source, it’s not been modified for the plenaries in the Enchiridion (which are not coronavirus-related), except in the specific dioceses where the bishop has chosen to issue a modification applicable only to his diocese. Most bishops haven’t.

Like I said, when one goes to confession next, one can ask the confessor to commute any delays or missed elements that aren’t already covered by either the Apostolic Decree or a bishop’s pronouncement.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
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Vico:
Normally the prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father, the reception of Communion, and Confession is within about 20 days before or after the indulgenced act, but that has been modified when effected by the current virus situation “with the will to fulfill them as soon as possible”.
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To my knowledge, it’s only been modified for the special coronavirus-related plenaries in the March 20, 2020 Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary on the granting of special Indulgences to the faithful in the current pandemic

Unless you have another source, it’s not been modified for the plenaries in the Enchiridion (which are not coronavirus-related), except in the specific dioceses where the bishop has chosen to issue a modification applicable only to his diocese. Most bishops haven’t.

Like I said, when one goes to confession next, one can ask the confessor to commute any delays or missed elements that aren’t already covered by either the Apostolic Decree or a bishop’s pronouncement.
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That is a good point. Concessions 8 (Rosary) and 13 (Way of the Cross) are originals acceptable for the plenary indulgence, and the others were added such as “other forms of devotion” so it may cover everything else in the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum: Normae et Concessiones – that is, for “the faithful suffering from Coronavirus”, and those “exposing themselves to the risk of contagion, care for the sick of Coronavirus”.
 
If you want the decree to apply to whatever you’re doing from the list of works for non-coronavirus patients and non-coronavirus caregivers, you also have to pray for the specific coronavirus intentions that the decree states.
 
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At the risk of sounding overly scrupulous this is part of my morning offering “…I offer them for the intentions of our Bishops and of all Apostles of Prayer and in particular for those recommended by our Holy Father this month.”.

Am I safe to assume that my daily morning offering will cover the condition of praying for the S.P’s. intention for each plenary?
 
Techically, you can say any prayer you like for the Holy Father’s Intentions, so that may cover it. I’m not sure what eactly you’re offering; if you’re offering all your works, then you can’t offer them for the Holy Father’s intentions AND expect to get indulgences for them.

The more common current practice is to say one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be for the Holy Father’s intentions. Traditionally, they would say longer sets of the same types of prayers, like 10 Hail Marys instead of one. However, every prayer group I’ve been in for the last several years says one Our Father, one Hail Mary, and one Glory Be at the end of whatever plenary indulgenced prayer we are doing.

I usually say my set of prayers for the Holy Father’s intentions right after receiving my Communion for the plenary (Or making my Spiritual Communion when we were on lockdown). That way I don’t forget, and I have one set of prayers and one communion per plenary indulgence, as required.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
If you want the decree to apply to whatever you’re doing from the list of works for non-coronavirus patients and non-coronavirus caregivers, you also have to pray for the specific coronavirus intentions that the decree states.
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That is, for several of the original concessions but: “to implore from Almighty God the end of the epidemic, relief for those who are afflicted and eternal salvation for those whom the Lord has called to Himself.”
 
Yes, exactly. I just make sure I have those intentions if I want to rely on the Apostolic Decree for an indulgence, since I am not sick myself so far, and not a caregiver for anyone.

As usual, one can also add other intentions.
 
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I went to confession last night and I asked father if he could commute my Communions and did me one better, he allowed me to be present in the back pew of the live streamed Masses on Sundays 😁
 
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