Interregnum plenary indulgences

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Margaret_Ann

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One of the conditions to gain a plenary indulgence is to pray for the intentions of the Holy Father.

Is it still possible to gain plenary indulgences in the interregnum between the death of one pope and the election of the next pope? If so, how?

(Apologies if this is under the wrong category.)
 
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I am no expert and speak under correction from those who are. But I think yes, you can still gain the indulgence. Pray for the Holy Father’s intentions. There was a Holy Father and thee will be another. God is not bound by time.
 
The period of interregnum is generally so short as to be irrelevant, given the window in which one can pray for the intentions of the Pope for the sake of a plenary indulgence.
 
True, but if one reads Church history, at one point there was no pope for about 2-3 years. The people got so mad they locked up all the Cardinals so they would finally decide on a new pope (which is where we get the term “conclave” - “with key”).
 
Yes, but current canon law precludes a conclave from lasting longer than two weeks.
 
Just curious, but where is that in the law? I’m not familiar.

-Fr ACEGC
 
It’s possible because “the intentions of the Holy Father” stay active even when there is no person occupying the office. One Peter Five, in one of their more useful articles, discussed this awhile ago and clarified what you are praying for when you pray “for the intentions of the Holy Father”, including when you are between Popes.
You can definitely still get the plenary indulgence.

 
Tis_Bearself said:
It’s possible because “the intentions of the Holy Father” stay active even when there is no person occupying the office. One Peter Five, in one of their more useful articles, discussed this awhile ago and clarified what you are praying for when you pray “for the intentions of the Holy Father”, including when you are between Popes.
You can definitely still get the plenary indulgence.

OnePeterFive – 12 Jan 16

What We Pray For When We Pray For the Intentions of the Holy Father -…​

Pope Francis was recently featured in a short online video to promote his monthly prayer intention. Unfortunately, the video has given the impression that the pope is promoting religious indifferentism, and as such, it has scandalized not a…
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OP raises a very interesting technicality which, in all honesty, I’d never thought of before. But I don’t think the 1P5 article really addresses it. If there is no Holy Father at the moment (in the relatively short sede vacante), then he can’t have intentions, and we can’t pray for what doesn’t exist. The cardinals could deadlock in conclave. What then?

As a practical matter, I would just go ahead, recite the prayers, fulfill the other conditions for the indulgence, and trust God to sort it all out.
 
It’s specifically discussed in the One Peter Five article under the part about praying during sede vacante times.
There are intentions that the Holy Father always has, as listed and described in the article. These intentions persist even when there is no Holy Father. If you pray for the Holy Father’s intentions between Popes, you will definitely be praying for these intentions. There is never a time when “the Holy Father’s intentions don’t exist”.

Furthermore, although this isn’t discussed in the 1P5 article, the Holy Father as I understand it makes up specific additional intentions for a whole year, that are in addition to the basic set that are always prayed for. The specific additional intentions are assigned to each month, a year in advance. They are not something that the Holy Father just makes up on the fly daily, weekly or monthly. The intentions are also pretty broad and general, such as prayers for Africa, prayers for all foreign missions in such and such location, etc. Edited to add, here are all the Holy Father’s additional intentions for 2019.

If the Holy Father suddenly dropped dead, I have a feeling the Vatican would continue to ask prayer for the pre-scheduled monthly intentions, at least until such time as a new Pope is elected, who could then choose to finish out the year’s worth of intentions or create his own. Of course if the Pope died near the end of the year, there might be a couple months of the new year with no prescheduled intentions, but the ones that always apply still would as described by 1P5.

Next time a Pope passes away I am going to check on this and see how they handle the monthly Holy Father’s Intentions, as they are posted on the Vatican website nowadays.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
It’s specifically discussed in the One Peter Five article under the part about praying during sede vacante times.
There are intentions that the Holy Father always has, as listed and described in the article. These intentions persist even when there is no Holy Father. If you pray for the Holy Father’s intentions between Popes, you will definitely be praying for these intentions.
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I read that, but it came across to me more as an assertion, and didn’t really explain how there can be “intentions of the Holy Father” when there is no Holy Father at the particular moment. Again, I wouldn’t let it keep me from pursuing a plenary indulgence, if I judged myself worthy of obtaining one.

I do agree, that it is just common sense, not to overthink the scenario and to assume that the four intentions cited are valid even when there is an interregnum, as are the intentions that were scheduled prior to the Pope’s demise.
 
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Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Indulgences are a fairly technical subject. The Raccolta referenced in the article was the predecessor to the current Manual of Indulgences and I think it can be relied upon in this instance. Also, as I explained, the Holy Father has a whole year of additional intentions mapped out in advance. I think the 1P5 article gives a very good and well-supported explanation. Anyone who doesn’t think it fully explains is free to just trust God to apply the prayers wherever needed, perhaps to the intentions of the outgoing Holy Father or the incoming Holy Father.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
Well, we’ll just have to agree to disagree. Indulgences are a fairly technical subject. The Raccolta referenced in the article was the predecessor to the current Manual of Indulgences and I think it can be relied upon in this instance. Also, as I explained, the Holy Father has a whole year of additional intentions mapped out in advance. I think the 1P5 article gives a very good and well-supported explanation. Anyone who doesn’t think it fully explains is free to just trust God to apply the prayers wherever needed, perhaps to the intentions of the outgoing Holy Father or the incoming Holy Father.
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I don’t think we disagree, except on the extent to which 1P5 analyzes the question at hand. I do agree, indulgences are technical. I don’t think they should be. They should be granted liberally. Some time ago I resolved to have the virtual intention, which I renew at every confession, of obtaining all the plenary and partial indulgences at every moment of my life, of which I am worthy.
 
Indulgences actually ARE granted “liberally”. They aren’t hard to obtain. The technical aspects to them would not have been a big hurdle for people in previous generations who were taught how to obtain them and practiced good prayer, Eucharist and confession habits on a regular basis.

Even today you can find prayer groups that always do the Prayers for the Holy Father’s Intentions as part of the daily Rosary said in a group, so that people can get the plenary. They don’t announce “this is so you can get the plenary”, they assume the people praying (who are often elderly) know that.

The point of indulgence practice is to become familiar again with aspects of one’s faith that kind of fell by the wayside in the post-Vatican II era. If you actually bother to read through the Manual of Indulgences, there are tons of partials you can pick up every day and it’s not hard to get a daily plenary either. It just requires someone to make the effort of reading and developing the habit.

I don’t mean this rudely but it sounds honestly like you are making remarks about indulgences while not having much familiarity with how one obtains them, when you suggest they are not granted “liberally”. I will leave this discussion now as I need to go get my daily plenary before midnight.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
I don’t mean this rudely but it sounds honestly like you are making remarks about indulgences while not having much familiarity with how one obtains them, when you suggest they are not granted “liberally”. I will leave this discussion now as I need to go get my daily plenary before midnight.
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Thanks, but I do understand how indulgences are obtained. I didn’t know one could get a “daily plenary”. How does that work? I could use it 😇

When I said “liberally”, perhaps I used the wrong word, what I meant to say is that they should be accessible to the average person in the pew who doesn’t know a whole lot about them. People aren’t taught this sort of thing anymore.

I’ll take a look at the manual you cite. Thanks.
 
This is a list of plenary indulgences available under the usual conditions → Plenary Indulgences

There are many prayers you can pray daily that carry a partial indulgence, and for all we know a partial could = 99% remittance - we just don’t know, but as you’ve already said - it is a wise and good practice to have the intention to gain all the indulgences either partial or plenary one can each. And it is good to renew this periodically as you say, and after confession is a good way to remember.
 
Just to add to what others have said, here is what the Apostolic Penitentiary has said:

Apostolic Penitentiary:
Even though the Apostolic See is vacant, the conditions of praying for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff are fulfilled (by reciting once the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” once; nevertheless, the opportunity is also given to the individual faithful to recite another prayer which pleases them according to the piety and devotion of each one), even if he has fulfilled the duty of his life, since the ends of the Pope’s intention, the ends for which one must pray–undoubtedly the spiritual good of the whole Church – persist.
catholicism - What substitutes for prayers for the Pope's intentions during sede vacante? - Christianity Stack Exchange
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The intentions of the Pope are always simply ends of the papacy–the current manual is silent, but a prior notes the following:

The prior manual of indulgences defined them as simply the ends of the papacy:
The intentions for which the Holy Father, as a general rule, requires prayer to be offered are: For the exaltation of Holy Church; for the extirpation of schism and heresy; for peace and concord amongst Christian kings and princes; and for the propagation of the Catholic faith. With these general intentions it would be fitting and judicious to offer a further prayer for the welfare of the Sovereign Pontiff, and for his special intentions.
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In more Vatican Two-ey lingo, I’ve seen them as follows: exaltation of Holy Church = freedom and well-being or renewal of the Church ; extirpation of heresy and schism = unity of Christians; peace and concord among kings and princes = peace among nations; and propagation of the Catholic faith = evangelization of peoples.

The “special intentions” in the quote above are those published monthly by the Holy Father. The Pope publishing such special intentions goes back to 1844 and was started in collaboration with the Apostleship of Prayer. The second Mission intention was added in 1929.
 
CRV said:
for all we know a partial could = 99% remittance - we just don’t know,
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I just wanted to point out that it’s not a total mystery. For partial indulgences, the Church essentially doubles the merit of the indulgenced act:
Regarding partial indulgences, with the abolishment of the former determination of days and years, a new norm or measurement has been established which takes into consideration the action itself of the faithful Christian who performs a work to which an indulgence is attached.

Since by their acts the faithful can obtain, in addition to the merit which is the principal fruit of the act, a further remission of temporal punishment in proportion to the degree to which the charity of the one performing the act is greater, and in proportion to the degree to which the act itself is performed in a more perfect way, it has been considered fitting that this remission of temporal punishment which the Christian faithful acquire through an action should serve as the measurement for the remission of punishment which the ecclesiastical authority bountifully adds by way of partial indulgence.
…
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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https://w2.vatican.va/content/paul-...-vi_apc_01011967_indulgentiarum-doctrina.html
 
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Genesis315 said:
Just to add to what others have said, here is what the Apostolic Penitentiary has said:

Apostolic Penitentiary:
Even though the Apostolic See is vacant, the conditions of praying for the intention of the Supreme Pontiff are fulfilled (by reciting once the “Our Father” and the “Hail Mary” once; nevertheless, the opportunity is also given to the individual faithful to recite another prayer which pleases them according to the piety and devotion of each one), even if he has fulfilled the duty of his life, since the ends of the Pope’s intention, the ends for which one must pray–undoubtedly the spiritual good of the whole Church – persist.
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This addresses the issue perfectly. Rome assures us explicitly that the intentions of the Holy Father exist even during the sede vacante. End of story.
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