Sufferage - meaning please?!

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BonnieBj

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I posted this questions under my hubby’s name DaveBj a few days ago and have had no answers. What is the menaing of the word asufferage when applied to indulgences. I reallyneed to know this.
 
We have to begin with what an indulgence is. “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment for sin the guilt of which is already forgiven, which a properly disposed member of the Christian faithful obtains under certain and definite conditions with the help of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies authoritatively the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.” (Canon 992)

The faithful can gain partial or plenary indulgences for themselves. (Canon 994) To be capable of gaining indulgences, a person must be alive, since he or should could not perform the acts of piety or other prescribed works if dead. As you know, the other side of the coin here is the principle that no one gaining an indulgence can apply it to other living people. As canon 992 says, the Church dispenses and applies from the treasury authoritatively.

However, they can also “apply them to the dead by way of suffrage.” (Canon 994)

Unlike the case of the living, the Church asserts no declaration with authority about how any indulgences would remit the punishments of purgatory for the dead.* The deceased are beyond the jurisdiction of the Church, and that authority is not given to the Church.

So while the Church can grant remission to a sinner here on earth, it cannot grant it to those who have died.

The Church can only manifest a kind of proposal, intercession or vote (“suffragium”) to God on behalf of the dead. So for example, when a plenary indulgence is applied for the dead, the Church petitions God for the full release of the suffering soul, but does not exercise the authority that can definitively conclude God does so.

However, we trust in God’s mercy and love for the dead, who are joined to us still in the communion of the saints.
  • The Catechism helps clarify this "punishment.
“1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life, the privation of which is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees one from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin. A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain.”
 
Thanks you so very much for your answer - it is just what I needed. My charism is mercy and I needed this info to be more effective. I had persued the big catechism as well as the CVatholic encyclopedia wth no luck. So thanks again.

Bonnie Bjornstad, Obl.O.S.B.
 
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