How do indulgences work?

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My understanding of indulgences was that they were applied only to one sin. So, if I were to steal something and confess it, a plenary indulgence would remove all temporal punishment from that sin alone, and a partial indulgence would take away part of the temporal punishment.

Someone told me that they are applied to your collective sins, as opposed to a single one. They said that a plenary indulgence would get you straight to heaven if you died just after receiving it, because the total temporal punishment due for all your sins together would be removed.

So what’s the deal? Are indulgences applied to one sin, or all sins?
 
From the CCC: ‘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."

"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin."The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.’
 
Personally, I offer any indulgences I may gain to Mary to be distributed as she feels fit. I may strive for a Plenary but there’s no guarantee that I’m truly disposed to it so it may be only partial. The important thing is to remember that God is merciful.
 
I do this too. St. Therese said we should give everything away and trust in God’s mercy, because no matter how many indulgences we’d pile up for ourselves, it could never be enough and we’d always worry it wasn’t enough. Besides, I’d feel like a fool racking up dozens of indulgences for myself only. It seems more natural to give them to souls in need.
 
I saw the Catechism reference, but the language was confusing. I’m not quite sure how to explain what I thought I was reading.

I might not spend half of eternity in purgatory after all.
 
Any time in purgatory is going to be better than none (unless you’re fast tracked to Paradise of course). Keep doing good and trust in God’s mercy and love.
 
There’s the lovely story of St Philip Neri preaching on Plenary Indulgences and it was revealed to him that only he and a devout char woman would be receiving one, out of hundreds of people.

After reading on indulgences I am inclined to believe that God will always be merciful and though we may not have a Plenary he may grant us 99% (for want of a better way of putting it).
 
AngelusDomini said:
After reading on indulgences I am inclined to believe that God will always be merciful and though we may not have a Plenary he may grant us 99% (for want of a better way of putting it).
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I would hope if I’m doing it for a soul other than myself he would grant them the 100 percent and ding me rather than them for my mistakes. I try to do a good job but I’m prone to the usual human failings and some days are better than others.
 
Am I right in thinking that no amount of partial indulgences would remove all of one’s temporal punishment? So, for example, two partial indulgences couldn’t have the same effect as a plenary indulgence?

My thinking is that indulgences are “counted” percentage wise, rather than commuting a fixed amount of temporal punishment. If the amount of my “current punishment due” is 100, a plenary indulgence would be worth 100% of that, or simply 100. If I received a partial indulgence instead- let’s say it’s worth 50%, then my “punishment due” would be 50. Then I receive another partial indulgence. It’s also 50%, but instead of taking away half of my original punishment, it takes away half of my “new” punishment, bringing me down to 25. And that would go on infinitely, ensuring that I spend some time in purgatory unless I eventually receive a plenary indulgence.

Is this correct?
 
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No, according to the Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina, the satisfaction made by the indulgence is equal to the satisfaction made by the indulgenced act (essentially doubling the merit):
n. 5—The faithful who at least with a contrite heart perform an action to which a partial indulgence is attached obtain, in addition to the remission of temporal punishment acquired by the action itself, an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church.
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In other words, if making the Sign of the Cross remits X amount of temporal punishment, the partial indulgence will remit another X, for a total of 2X.
 
Thom18 said:
Am I right in thinking that no amount of partial indulgences would remove all of one’s temporal punishment? So, for example, two partial indulgences couldn’t have the same effect as a plenary indulgence?

My thinking is that indulgences are “counted” percentage wise, rather than commuting a fixed amount of temporal punishment. If the amount of my “current punishment due” is 100, a plenary indulgence would be worth 100% of that, or simply 100. If I received a partial indulgence instead- let’s say it’s worth 50%, then my “punishment due” would be 50. Then I receive another partial indulgence. It’s also 50%, but instead of taking away half of my original punishment, it takes away half of my “new” punishment, bringing me down to 25. And that would go on infinitely, ensuring that I spend some time in purgatory unless I eventually receive a plenary indulgence.

Is this correct?
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There isn’t any specific “time” or “percentage” assigned to any indulgence any more except plenary ones.

Plenaries would be 100% if we met all of the conditions including the “detachment from sin” one, which is the hardest one to meet. We can make sure we check the box for all the others, but we cannot ever be certain that we are adequately detached from sin. So God decides, for that. He also decides if our performance of the indulgenced work is good enough.

Partial indulgences no longer have a specific percentage or duration or anything. It’s true that if each is worth X then we can get double benefit 2X as posted above. However, we do not know what “X” is. So the idea is we just try to fulfill the conditions as best we can, hoping for a 99.9% of whatever punishment we have on the books, and God decides.

You can see that we can never say with certainty that we’ve removed all of our own punishment, especially since we are living our lives and racking up sins and punishments by the day (since even the just man sins about 7 times a day). It would drive you batty trying to atone for everything on an ongoing basis. So the only sensible thing to do is to give all your indulgences away to the Poor Souls in need. And then throw yourself on God’s mercy for your own salvation.

PLUS…there’s a bonus…
if you have been regularly praying to get these indulgences for other folks during your lifetime, then when you are at the point of death (and presumably are not committing any more sins since you’re busy dying - we’ll assume you’re not committing suicide or robbing a bank and getting shot by the police etc.) as long as you’re in the state of grace, you can get a plenary just for having habitually said some prayers during your lifetime, even if you die without a priest there to give you the last rites. And presumably this plenary would take care of any punishment you had on the books. So you don’t have to earn any indulgences for yourself during your lifetime at all.

http://www.ewtn.com/library/liturgy/zlitur467.htm
 
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Indulgences can seem very complicated and systematic. The key to remember is they are all about the communion of Saints and how we are all one body. I have a long post that goes into more detail with the Biblical back-up linked below, but basically indulgences are related to the third part of repentance: making satisfaction (aka doing deeds or bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance or, in the alternative, receiving the just punishments of God). If we don’t make sufficient satisfaction in this life, it is completed in the next (purgatory). Because we are all one Body, we can make satisfaction for one another and so many Saints have gone above and beyond what their own sins necessitated. Bishops, in light of their power to bind and loose and by virtue of these superabundant merits in the Mystical Body, for a good cause can remit the need to make satisfaction in this life (and therefore the next) partially or totally.

Here’s a more in depth, two-part post I wrote some years back.
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Indulgences Explained Liturgy and Sacraments
The doctrine of indulgences is linked with the doctrine of the communion Saints. The elements of this doctrine are all biblical and were present in the early Church East and West–it is more obvious in the penitential practice of the early Church, but it still applicable today of course. First, it bears pointing out that there are three parts to repentance–contrition, confession, and bringing forth fruits worthy of repentance (this last part is often called “satisfaction.”) It is the third part …
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