Plenary Indulgence on DVR

[CurtisHouse]

What happens if you watch the blessing by Pope Francis of the Plenary Indulgence at a different date? I wasn’t able to watch it until early this morning. Is the Plenary Indulgence still valid? I was looking over all the conditions for receiving the Plenary Indulgence but this had me question whether I received the Blessing or not.

• A spirit detached from sin.
  – Sacramental confession as soon as possible.
  – Eucharistic Communion as soon as possible.
  – Prayer for the Holy Father’s intentions.
  – Being united spiritually through the media to the pope’s special prayer and blessing on 27th March.

 

[MrZoom]

I know I read somewhere that in order to gain the indulgence, you have to watch or listen to the broadcast live. Sorry.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

We’ve had a couple of people ask that already. Here’s the first thread on it. Mr Zoom is correct, you would have needed to watch or listen live to receive both the blessing and the attached indulgence.

Does the Urbi et Orbi when watching a recorded version, still make one eligible to receive the plenary indulgence? Traditional Catholicism

Hello all! I missed the Urbi et Orbi today from His Holiness, Pope Francis. If I watch a recorded version, will it still make me eligible as long as I complete everything else required? May the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

 

[HomeschoolDad]

We’ve had a couple of people ask that already. Here’s the first thread on it. Mr Zoom is correct, you would have needed to watch or listen live to receive both the blessing and the attached indulgence.

Hello all! I missed the Urbi et Orbi today from His Holiness, Pope Francis. If I watch a recorded version, will it still make me eligible as long as I complete everything else required? May the peace and love of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.

The Enchiridion Indulgentarium didn’t foresee recording technology or video streaming. I would really like to see the Holy Father use the Church’s binding and loosing power to permit what you describe. He seems to be pretty tech-friendly (selfies and Twitter), so I wonder if anyone’s brought up the possibility to him.

Papa Francisco, stai leggendo questo?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It foresaw it and specifically addresses it. It mentions that you must receive an Urbi et Orbi blessing live, either in person or by TV or radio, but live. It has other indulgences that you can get via television or radio but you have to participate live. “Television and radio” have been generally interpreted to include streaming online.

When it comes to blessings, this is not just an indulgence issue but it also relates to the basic principle that you must receive a priest’s blessing live in real time. Otherwise, somebody could record the papal blessing or a priest’s blessing, play it back tomorrow or every day for a year, and consider themself blessed. That’s not how blessings work.

For an Urbi et Orbi indulgence, the indulgenced work is you receive the blessing. To get the blessing, you have to either be there in person OR tune in to a live broadcast in real time. Otherwise you don’t get blessed. And as a consequence, you don’t get the indulgence.

 

[MrZoom]

Otherwise, somebody could record the papal blessing or a priest’s blessing, play it back tomorrow or every day for a year, and consider themself blessed. That’s not how blessings work.

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[HomeschoolDad]

It foresaw it and specifically addresses it. It mentions that you must receive an Urbi et Orbi blessing live, either in person or by TV or radio, but live. It has other indulgences that you can get via television or radio but you have to participate live. “Television and radio” have been generally interpreted to include streaming online.

When it comes to blessings, this is not just an indulgence issue but it also relates to the basic principle that you must receive a priest’s blessing live in real time. Otherwise, somebody could record the papal blessing or a priest’s blessing, play it back tomorrow or every day for a year, and consider themself blessed. That’s not how blessings work.

For an Urbi et Orbi indulgence, the indulgenced work is you receive the blessing. To get the blessing, you have to either be there in person OR tune in to a live broadcast in real time. Otherwise you don’t get blessed. And as a consequence, you don’t get the indulgence.

OK, I stand corrected, and I would readily defer to your obvious expertise in the matter of indulgences. In fact, yesterday while I was out running errands, I mused “TisBearself obtains all these indulgences, so what’s your excuse?”, I said to myself.

We’re all in this together, getting one another to heaven, or getting there more quickly and with less suffering, as the case may be. When this crisis passes, I may have to give myself “a check-up from the neck up” on the matter of more frequent weekday Mass and more frequent confession.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

It’s actually never been easier to obtain a plenary than it is right now. Normally, doing a plenary indulgence work takes about a half hour, and for many works (except for reading Scripture) you need to go to a church.

Now, it’s fine to say the Rosary at home by yourself to get a Rosary plenary, if you pray for the Vatican’s stated intentions against coronavirus. Unlike normal times, there’s no need to find a group to pray with you, and no need to go to a church.

And due to COVID, you can even get a plenary for saying the Divine Mercy alone at home, if you say it for the Vatican’s stated intention. I say the DM with a couple extra prayers and it takes me 6 minutes. That’s an incredibly easy plenary. Normally you cannot get a plenary for praying the DM except when it’s part of Divine Mercy Sunday devotions, one day a year.

 

[CurtisHouse]

Sounds like it is a very good thing that I did say the Chaplet of Divine Mercy for an end to COVID-19. It’s good to know for future issues. My wife and I normally work nights so, in my timezone, I would have to be up at 10am for that and just isn’t feasible especially with my medical condition (I have Epilepsy) and lack of sleep is something that could lead to seizures. Thank you all for your replies.

 

[CurtisHouse]

Another issue that comes up is that “live” tv is not actually live. There is still a seven second tape delay on live tv. It would seem the only way to truly hear the Pope’s blessing live or “real time” would to be there in Rome with him.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

I think the Church considers the few seconds delay to be “de minimis” (in other words, minimal, unimportant) since they explicitly allow for radio and television in the Manual of Indulgences, and there is a delay associated with those.

I have noticed the delay because I tuned in the Urbi et Orbi on EWTN on my TV and also on several streaming sites on the web because I was worried one site might go down - so many people are tuning in these days to the Facebook Live and other streaming programs that there have been some site crashes - and I noticed all three of them were a few seconds out of sync with each other.

It’s really awesome that we have all this broadcast media because we have only had radio for about 100 years, TV for less than that, EWTN for even less than that, and streaming on Internet relatively recently. If we were living in the 19th century we could probably only get this blessing by going to St. Peter’s Square in person, especially since Popes didn’t globetrot around the world in those days either.

 

[MrZoom]

I agree with @Tis_Bearself.

I mean, if you really want to be technical about it, if you’re in the back row of a church and the priest gives a blessing, there’s even then a delay of several milliseconds from when he says the words to when it reaches your ears.

Yeah, I know, reductio ad absurdum …