How can one be free of attachment to venial sin?

[K_C]

Mr. Keating has an article posted on this site about indulgences. Part of it states that to receive a plenary indulgence, “The final condition is that you must be free from all attachment to sin, including venial sin. If you attempt to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet the last condition, a partial indulgence is received instead.”

I would like to know how one can BE “free of ALL attachment to sin, including venial sin”. In fact, doesn’t this mean that one would have to be a saint, since everyone is “attached” to sin with the exception of Christ or Mary? If it is nearly impossible to truly be so “free”, what was the point of the Church in even creating terms for plenary indulgences in the first place?

I hope you can clarify this for me as I am a stage IV cancer patient and, understandably, most anxious to be as free of the need for “temporal punishment” as possible before the (physical) pain begins.

 

[Fr.Vincent_Serpa]

Hi,

What he is basically saying is that one needs to have gone to Confession recently. The sacrament of Penance removes all mortal and venial sin. Also, the sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick removes all temporal punishment due to sin. Each time your illness reaches a new state of development, you are entitled to receive the Anointing again. You are in our prayers.

Fr. Vincent Serpa, O.P.