Response to certain objections to indulgences (95 theses)

[TaylorDonBarret]

One of the objections Luther had to the sale of indulgences was this…

If the Pope has the power to remit temporal punishment, and thereby relieve souls from purgatory - why does he not, out of pure love, simply remit the punishments for all the souls in purgatory?

What would a good Catholic response to this question be? I am not concerned with whether the Pope has the power. I believe he does. I am concerned with why he would not use this power to simply release everyone from all their punishments at once?

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The Catechism CCC 1478 states:

1478 An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins. Thus the Church does not want simply to come to the aid of these Christians, but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity.

In other words…we need to do some good action to earn our remission, not just get it handed to us.

 

[Spyridon]

The Pope has no more power to effect souls in Purgatory than a normal person does.

That’s Gods prerogative. The Pope doesnt send people to heaven when he canonizes them. He doesnt free people from purgatory somehow.

That’s a severe misunderstanding of papal authority and indulgences.

 

[Tis_Bearself]

The Catechism (see above) specifically says that “the Church intervenes”, which could be interpreted as Pope is synonymous with the Church or is its main representative on earth. Therefore, the Church/ Pope does have some control in this situation.

However, you are correct that the Pope / Church doea not have the ultimate say in when one goes from Purgatory to Heaven. You could for example do the indulgence as specified by the Church for a soul, or for yourself, and the Lord would decide ultimately how to apply that grace (to the soul you request, or to someone else, as the Lord is not bound to honor your request that it be for soul X) and if the grace was sufficient to send that soul from Purgatory to Heaven. So God has the final say.

 

[De_Maria]

One of the objections Luther had to the sale of indulgences was this…

If the Pope has the power to remit temporal punishment, and thereby relieve souls from purgatory - why does he not, out of pure love, simply remit the punishments for all the souls in purgatory?

Because he loves God.

What would a good Catholic response to this question be? I am not concerned with whether the Pope has the power. I believe he does. I am concerned with why he would not use this power to simply release everyone from all their punishments at once?

Because God didn’t will it. The very first person who could have relieved everybody from Purgatory is Jesus Christ. He is man and God. He could have said, “OK, from now on, no one has to go to Purgatory.” But He didn’t. He said:

Matthew 5:26 Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.

Jesus appointed St. Peter to take His place. If He wanted St. Peter to do it, I’m sure He would have given him the order to do so. But since St. Peter didn’t do it, I’m sure that it wasn’t God’s will that it be so.

The Pope’s first duty is to God. And God established a system of justice. Purgatory is integral to it. So are indulgences.

I hope that helps.