Question regarding confession and plenary indulgence

[Gelassenheit]

I know that sacramental confession is one of the requirements for obtaining a plenary indulgence, but what I am wondering is whether the confession must take place prior to the day on which the indulgence is offered, or can it be in the days following, such as with first Saturday devotions (within 8 days prior or following the first Saturday). I have an opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence this coming Sunday, but it will be difficult for me to go to confession this Saturday, as I normally would, as my cousin is getting married that afternoon. If I have to make a sacramental confession before this coming Sunday (the 29th), I’d like to know as soon as possible, so that I can try to arrange one with a priest sometime during this week.

Thanks in advance for any help on this question, and God bless you.

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Gelassenheit,

This is from the Apostolic Penitentiary(the Roman tribunal which administers Indulgences) General Remarks on Indulgences, #5:

It is appropriate, but not necessary, that the sacramental Confession and especially Holy Communion and the prayer for the Pope’s intentions take place on the same day that the indulgenced work is performed; but it is sufficient that these sacred rites and prayers be carried out within several days (about 20) before or after the indulgenced act.

Please click on the above link for more info. I hope that helps!

God bless you,
VC

 

[Gelassenheit]

VC, that was very helpful indeed. Thanks very much.

 

[Andruschak]

I know that sacramental confession is one of the requirements for obtaining a plenary indulgence, but what I am wondering is whether the confession must take place prior to the day on which the indulgence is offered, or can it be in the days following, such as with first Saturday devotions (within 8 days prior or following the first Saturday)…

From one of Susan Tassone’s books, “All conditions must be met within eight days prior to or after the work”. This includes Confession, Communion, prayer for the Pope’s intentions, and you have to be in a state of grace and have no attachment to any sin, including venial sin. Otherwise, venial sin renders only a partial indulgence.

In my case, not being in a state of grace, I can only hope, at best, for a partial indulgence to pass on to the holy souls in Purgatory.

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Hi Andruschak,

I just thought I would clarify, in the hope that both you and Gelassenheit find the information useful.

The norm for gaining an idulgence used to be 8 days, as you stated. However, my understanding is that this was recently changed by the Apostolic Penitentiary during the Great Jubilee Year, in 2000. At that time a “Jubilee Indulgence” was proclaimed, and could be obtained by following the norms on indulgences, and the performing one of the specific indulgenced acts.

However, the Jubilee document (entitled “The Gift of the Indulgence”) gives as sufficent “several days (about 20)” for completing the sacred rites (comunion and confession). This norm was contained under “General Remarks on Indulgences” in the document (see my post above. . .it was remark #5).

The question remained, however, whether or not this replaced the previous norm of 8 days, or rather was this was simply in effect during the Jubilee Year (from Midnight Mass Dec. 24 1999 tol Jan 6 2001)?

This question was submitted to the Apostolic Penitentiary, and the response was that the “General Remarks” were now the norm for indulgences. Thus, according to my understanding, the prior norm of 8 days has been replaced.

As a side note, with the approach of All Souls Day, a plenary indulgence may be gained by devoutly visiting a cemetary each day between Nov 1 and Nov 8 and saying a prayer for the departed, or by visiting a church or public oratory on November 2 (and reciting the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed). Both indulgences are applicable only to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and must include the usual norms.

God bless you both,
VC

 

[Andruschak]

Hi Andruschak,
As a side note, with the approach of All Souls Day, a plenary indulgence may be gained by devoutly visiting a cemetary each day between Nov 1 and Nov 8 and saying a prayer for the departed, or by visiting a church or public oratory on November 2 (and reciting the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed). Both indulgences are applicable only to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, and must include the usual norms.

God bless you both,
VC

Thank you for the updated information. As an RCIA Candidate, I understand that I am unable to earn Plenary Indulgences for the Holy Souls, just a partial. But I do what I can.

That bit about reciting the Creed and Our father in Church on 2 November. Is it OK to do it as part of my daily rosary, or must they be a seperatre effort?

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Andruschak,

Let’s look at the Apostolic Constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina , to see where I got that from:

n. 15—A plenary indulgence applicable only to the dead can be acquired in all churches and public oratories—and in semipublic oratories by those who have the right to use them—on November 2.

n.16—The work prescribed for acquiring a plenary indulgence connected with a church or oratory consists in a devout visit and the recitation of an “Our Father” and “Creed.”

Turning to Canon Law, we find:

Can. 996 §1. To be capable of gaining indulgences, a person must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the end of the prescribed works.

§2. To gain indulgences, however, a capable subject must have at least the general intention of acquiring them and must fulfill the enjoined works in the established time and the proper method, according to the tenor of the grant.

As far as I can tell (caveat: I am not a canon lawyer!) you must have either an habitiual intention of gaining the particular indulgence or an actual intention. But I do not think that this would translate, in this case, to any particular intention during the indulgenced act.

In other words, sometimes the indulgenced act has conditions such as “prayer for the Holy father’s intentions” and in that case you would have to have that particular motive during prayer.

In this case, however, the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed are the indulgenced act themselves. Since you would be in a Church or Oratory, and performing the indulgenced act, and have (at least) the general intention of gaining the indulgence I would say you fulfill those conditions. Even if the Lord’s Prayer and the Creed are done in the context of the Rosary. Or, lets say, the order of The Mass.

Adruschak, on a personal note, I see that you seem to indicate that you are not able to obtain the indulgence because you are currently in RCIA. Have you been baptized? If so, then it would seem you are able to fulfill all the ocnditions according to the above canons.

I hope that helps. As always, if anything that I have related is found to be contrary to the authentic teaching of the Magisterium, please disregard my statements. They are either due to my lack of knowledge or my inability to convey the concepts correctly.

God Bless you!
VC

 

[Andruschak]

Adruschak, on a personal note, I see that you seem to indicate that you are not able to obtain the indulgence because you are currently in RCIA. Have you been baptized? If so, then it would seem you are able to fulfill all the ocnditions according to the above canons.
VC

Baptized, yes. But since I am RCIA, I cannot yet have confession and forgiveness of sins. Not until Easter. As such, I am a long way from a state of grace. As such, are my efforts for the Holy Souls producing any comfort for them?

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Andruschak,

Forgive me if my question was indelicate,. . . but that is what I suspected because you mentioned earlier not being in the state of grace. I know that these are important and very personal matters and perhaps not for discussion in an open forum. Please send me a private message if you feel like discussing this further.

I understand that RCIA programs can differ from parish to parish and diocese to diocese. But, my understanding is that someone in your position (I too was in your position) should receive the Sacrament of Penance before full reception into the Church. Unfortunately sometimes the reception of the Sacrament of Penace is not offered until very late in the process, and there are good indications that this is not how things are ideally supposed to go.

In any event, have you by any chance investigated your options? Perhaps you can speak to someone at your parish (Pastor?) and inquire about going to confession?

I also want to offer something else. The Church does not intend you to wait in an intractable situation until full reception. If the Sacrament is unavailable to you, I would suggest to you that you might want to make an Act of Contrition. And perhaps to make it periodically as formation leading up to the Sacramet of Penance and full reception.

Again, perhaps we can discuss this further in private messaging.

God bless you,
VC

(p.s. I also didn’t think through everything before I posted my last post: even with the reception of the Sacrament of Penance or ortherwise restoration of the state of grace, one must be able to receive communion to fulfill the usual conditions for a plenary indulgence. Since you have not yet been received into full communion, you would be unable to fulfill that norm. But soon! )

 

[Verbum_Caro]

Andruschak:

are my efforts for the Holy Souls producing any comfort for them?

Andruschak,

I wanted to address this point seperately. (Here we do not consider the specific instance of someone being in the state of grace or not)

One of the intersting things about indulgences is that there is merit in the act itself. (If done with supernatural motive in grace). The Church in Her wisdom and bounty, adds to that meritorious action even further merit by Her treasury of grace.

For this proposition I cite the document (linked to in some obove posts) Indulgentiarum Doctrina, Chapter 5:

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.

(emphasis mine)

This proposition is repeated in Norm 5 of the same document:

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.

This seems to indicate that even when an indulgenced act is performed in such a way that it does not fulfill the norms for the granting of an indulgence (partial or plenary) that the faithful still receive (all things being equal: state of grace, supernatural motive, contrite heart) the merit of the act itself.

This merit can thus be applied to the Holy Souls in Purgatory.

Thus, no indulgenced act is wasted, even if you don’t receive the indulgence attached to it.

God Bless,
VC

 

[Pug]

Baptized, yes. But since I am RCIA, I cannot yet have confession and forgiveness of sins. Not until Easter. As such, I am a long way from a state of grace. As such, are my efforts for the Holy Souls producing any comfort for them?

My recollection is that *Catholics *can gain indulgences. I don’t know if that has changed recently or not. But it used to be explained that way as you have to be a subject of the one granting the indulgence. That could be your own bishop, and not just the pope, depending on the particular indulgence. Here is an instance of this on this very site:

To gain any indulgence you must be a Catholic in a state of grace. You must be a Catholic in order to be under the Church’s jurisdiction, and you must be in a state of grace because apart from God’s grace none of your actions are fundamentally pleasing to God (meritorious). You also must have at least the habitual intention of gaining an indulgence by the act performed.

I’d continue your efforts on behalf of the Poor Souls. Even if for some reason you do not fit the category of an indulgence, you can always pray for people. Beg God that he not despise your petition and that he overlook your defects for the sake of others. He is God, after all. He can chose to grant your prayer. Also, you can have a mass offered for a loved one who has died. This is exceedingly helpful. I’m assuming you can do this even though not yet officially a Catholic. Anyone know??

Also, it is true that you could be in a state of grace from perfect contrition. Pray for the grace of perfect contrition! Also, the things that are indulgenced are usually indulgenced because the Church wants to encourage those things because they are helpful in themselves. So take their advice.

Cut from the introduction from the 1986 version (third version) about indulgences, copy of which is here, worth reading in entirety, given your interest:

1. With appreciation for both tradition and the changes of recent times, what principle should be used in judging certain prayers and works to be outstanding ones? Particularly appropriate would be those prayers and works which not only help the faithful satisfy for punishment due their sins but also and especially urge them on to a more fervent charity. This is the principle upon which this revision is based. [1]

Andruschak, Easter will come!!!