Indulgences are back!

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What do you mean they are back? They were never taken from us to my knowledge:shrug:
 
Redrose, I am with you but read the article in the NY Times. It was on the front page so it must be news.
 
PoliSciProf said:
Redrose, I am with you but read the article in the NY Times. It was on the front page so it must be news.
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Wow, I didn’t read the article, but indulgences never went away. They were just hush hush for a long time. I don’t trust the New York Times with religious articles, anyway. They always skew the facts in some way or another.
 
Ah the New York Times shines again with its great quality of understanding and in depth journalism regarding religion. lol.
 
OK, I’m going to expose my “ignorance” here. I am 32 years old and I have heard the term “indulgences” as a life-long Catholic. I also have a master’s degree in English and anytime you study English history you’re going to read about the ugly side of the Catholic church. Sooooo…please don’t crucify me for this…but I always thought that giving and receiving of indulgences meant you were paying money to the church in order for a priest to release you from your sins. Uggghhhh…I have a feeling my Protestant medival lit professor might have led me astray. Enlighten me, please!
 
from new advent

Indulgences
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The word indulgence (Latin indulgentia, from indulgeo, to be kind or tender) originally meant kindness or favor; in post-classic Latin it came to mean the remission of a tax or debt. In Roman law and in the Vulgate of the Old Testament (Isaiah 61:1) it was used to express release from captivity or punishment. In theological language also the word is sometimes employed in its primary sense to signify the kindness and mercy of God. But in the special sense in which it is here considered, an indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin, the guilt of which has been forgiven. Among the equivalent terms used in antiquity were pax, remissio, donatio, condonatio.
What an indulgence is not

To facilitate explanation, it may be well to state what an indulgence is not. It is not a permission to commit sin, nor a pardon of future sin; neither could be granted by any power. It is not the forgiveness of the guilt of sin; it supposes that the sin has already been forgiven. It is not an exemption from any law or duty, and much less from the obligation consequent on certain kinds of sin, e.g., restitution; on the contrary, it means a more complete payment of the debt which the sinner owes to God. It does not confer immunity from temptation or remove the possibility of subsequent lapses into sin. Least of all is an indulgence the purchase of a pardon which secures the buyer’s salvation or releases the soul of another from Purgatory. The absurdity of such notions must be obvious to any one who forms a correct idea of what the Catholic Church really teaches on this subject.
What an indulgence is

An indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, in God’s justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the Church in the exercise of the power of the keys, through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and of the saints, and for some just and reasonable motive. Regarding this definition, the following points are to be noted:
* In the Sacrament of Baptism not only is the guilt of sin remitted, but also all the penalties attached to sin. In the Sacrament of Penance the guilt of sin is removed, and with it the eternal punishment due to mortal sin; but there still remains the temporal punishment required by Divine justice, and this requirement must be fulfilled either in the present life or in the world to come, i.e., in Purgatory. An indulgence offers the penitent sinner the means of discharging this debt during his life on earth.
 
Ame said:
OK, I’m going to expose my “ignorance” here. I am 32 years old and I have heard the term “indulgences” as a life-long Catholic. I also have a master’s degree in English and anytime you study English history you’re going to read about the ugly side of the Catholic church. Sooooo…please don’t crucify me for this…but I always thought that giving and receiving of indulgences meant you were paying money to the church in order for a priest to release you from your sins. Uggghhhh…I have a feeling my Protestant medival lit professor might have led me astray. Enlighten me, please!
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This is why they were not spoken of much but also why we should start to speak about them again now. If a Catholic thinks this (and I’m not blaming you at all, it’s certainly not your fault), then how much more off-kilter will a non-Catholic’s understanding be? I have seen more talk and explanations of indulgences on EWTN as of late, so maybe we are starting to set things straight finally.
 
I will try to explain…when our sins our forgiven it doesn’t mean we won’t have to pay in someway for the harm we have done

It only means we won’t be condemned to Hell for them…We still have to face purgatory and penance…and indulgences are a grace that forgives a bit of the temporal punishment for our sins…It’s nothing to do with money

Indulgences are granted for some sort of private or public devotion to God…it is sort of like when we are bad and get in trouble with our parents ,so they ground us for a week or two…but then we do something really wonderful and kind , and our parents think well perhaps I should show a bit of mercy ,because you are trying to do better…so they shave a day or two off our punishment
 
Snerticus said:
Wow, I didn’t read the article, but indulgences never went away. They were just hush hush for a long time. I don’t trust the New York Times with religious articles, anyway. They always skew the facts in some way or another.
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Why were they hush hush? The NY Times was not clear on this. :confused: What is your take?
 
I never knew they were hush hush…The pope has granted indulgences for things as long as I can recall
 
To put it shortly, every time you go to Confession the priest gives you a penance.

This penance is only a partial penance for the sins you committed. While the guilt is forgiven, the penance due to sin is not forgiven by Confession. Every sin has penance due it by God’s justice.

If we do not do the penance in this life we do it in the next. This is Purgatory.

There are two effects of sin Purgatory is said to address: First of all the interior changes needed within a person to enter Heaven, and Second the penance due God’s Justice for the sin.

In this life we are called by the Church to do penance for our sins. The Church’s indulgences are the giving of the merits of Christ and of the saints towards our penances.

It is through the power of St. Peter’s keys and the authority to bind and loose sin that indulgences are given.

What are the merits of the saints? To understand this you must understand merit. I will not explain that here unless you need to know, it is also basic Catholicism that often is not taught however. :eek: 🙂

As Christians we are called to gather as much merit as we can in this life so that our place in Heaven is the high point it should be, rather than less than it should be. Those with merit are the first in the kingdom of Heaven, those without are the last. We can only acquire it in a state of grace, as too our prayers are only obliged to be heard in, and indulgences given.

Since spiritual indulgences require right intention to be received, it is impossible to buy them, and so this never actually occurred despite the accusations. 🙂

Indulgences are the Church’s application of Christ’s and the saints’ merits to our own penances, and she ‘indulges’ certain acts and penances so that these merits are authoritatively joined with ours in the Communion of Saints.

Thereby we may through indulgences:
  1. Lessen our time of penance in Purgatory, to eliminate it.
  2. Lessen others time of penance in Purgatory, to eliminate it.
So they are a large part of the charitable devotion to relieve the suffering souls in Purgatory.

There is a small Handbook on Indulgences which lists some of them one can purchase and make use of.

To gain an indulgence it is necessary to: A. Be in a state of grace. B. Perform the indulgenced act, according to whatever requirements it has, and C. Intend to gain the indulgence.

I have heard it said it is sufficient at the start of the day to say a short prayer with the intention of gaining all the indulgences applicable to one’s acts that day, to gain them generally for that day but I would keep the intention in mind fresh.

If I’ve made any mistake about what I have said here please correct me or fill in the blanks. 🙂
 
PoliSciProf said:
Why were they hush hush? The NY Times was not clear on this. :confused: What is your take?
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When I say hush hush, I mean in the way that hell is not spoken of anymore or purgatory (from the pulpit).

The Reformation brings visions of corruption and uneasy feelings; and no one wants to feel uneasy. Therefore not many priests were wililng to bring up indulgences. If you read my remark above, there is a good example of a lifelong Catholic who either didn’t remember what they were taught about indulgences or more likely wasn’t taught adequately about them and therefore had to rely on other sources for the wrong explanation.

Since EWTN at least has been coming out more in explaining the practice of indulgences, I’m hoping that priests will be more brave in bringing them up in their homilies so that we can get back on track about what indulgences really are.

How many times in the last 10 to 20 years have you heard about indulgences at your parish? I can only speak for myself, but I don’t remember anytime they were brought up.

Maybe it’s different in other parts of the country or world, but here, as well as where I am originally from in Pennsylvania, I never heard about indulgences since I was a child in catechism class over 30 years ago.
 
redrosetea said:
I never knew they were hush hush…The pope has granted indulgences for things as long as I can recall
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The Pope is not the only way or an ordinary way to be granted an indulgence. A rosary said properly will grant you an indulgence.

But all that being said (both here and in my other posts) I am not indulgence-savvy. I know there are partial indulgences and plenary indulgences. Other than confession, I try not to worry about which is which and what grants us them becuase I don’t want to get caught up in doing things becuase they are indulgences. I want to know I am doing them simply because I want to. Ie: the rosary, etc…

Which brings me to a question - is that the wrong way to look at it? I admit that I certainly can be wrong. :o
 
Snerticus said:
The Pope is not the only way or an ordinary way to be granted an indulgence. A rosary said properly will grant you an indulgence.

But all that being said (both here and in my other posts) I am not indulgence-savvy. I know there are partial indulgences and plenary indulgences. Other than confession, I try not to worry about which is which and what grants us them becuase I don’t want to get caught up in doing things becuase they are indulgences. I want to know I am doing them simply because I want to. Ie: the rosary, etc…

Which brings me to a question - is that the wrong way to look at it? I admit that I certainly can be wrong. :o
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I’m sure one could look upon it either way rightly. 🙂 One could focus on the beauty of the Communion of Saints and the merits of Christ being joined to the act, or the Christ in the act itself, both are good. 🙂
 
No you are not wrong…just remember love begets more love…God will never be outdone in kindness and generosity
 
I voted Under 50 years old–have heard of indulgences but never sought one.

However, saying that, I just purchased: The Handbook of Indulgences at the one of the local Catholic book stores. It was mentioned on a retreat I was on with the Order Canons Regular of the Holy Cross (ORC) this past weekend.
 
Under 50, have heard of indulgences, and have sought them.

However, I should mention that when growing up I never heard of them outside of history class. I didn’t get confirmed when I was a teenager, so I had to go through RCIA in my early 20’s. It was there that I finally learned about them.
 
Our priests use indulgences often during homilies or even when talking with them.
 
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