Vatican extends time for obtaining November plenary indulgences for the faithful departed and allows you to get them without leaving your home

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Tis_Bearself

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Once again the Vatican has made plenary indulgences, in this case for the deceased (only), super-easy to get in this time of COVID. So, if you’ve been wanting to get some indulgences for your deceased relatives and friends, now’s the time!

Some of you may already be familiar with the annual November plenary indulgences applicable only to the deceased in Purgatory (you can’t use them for yourself), that are normally available, one per day, under the usual plenary indulgence conditions during November 1 through November 8, for either
  1. visiting a cemetery and devoutly praying for the faithful departed (available once a day under the usual conditions, maximum 8 plenaries over 8 days), or
  2. on All Souls’ Day, Nov. 2 (or if the Ordinary permits, this may be transferred to the preceding or following Sunday or to All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1), devoutly visit a church or oratory and pray one Our Father and the Creed.
Yesterday, the Apostolic Penitentiary released a special decree for November 2020 that modifies this so that the plenary indulgence for the deceased can be obtained on ANY day of November, not just Nov. 1 through 8, by visiting a cemetery, even mentally, and devoutly praying for the faithful departed.
(Edited my original post)
So now you don’t even have to leave your house! Just mentally envision yourself in the cemetery of your choice and pray for the faithful departed.

The Vatican News article suggested that you can get this indulgence on any day of November, up to 30 times. In reading the actual decree, I’m not so sure if the Vatican is suggesting that you can actually get more than 8 such indulgences or just that you can transfer the 8 “visits” (even mental) to other days in November. To be on the safe side, I will probably only get this indulgence 8 times, especially since one can still get easy plenaries at home from the March 2020 decree regarding COVID-19.
(End of edits)

Furthermore, if you want the All Souls’ Day plenary, you can get it once in November on any day you want - doesn’t have to be All Souls’ Day, you can pick the day. You do however still have to go to the church in person and recite the Our Father and the Creed. Note that if you get this plenary, you cannot also get a second plenary (such as the Visit to a Cemetery one) on the same day, so your second plenary will be a partial. Which is still good, it could be a 99 percent partial.

Here’s a Vatican News article on the decree. I will dig up the actual decree in a minute.

(There’s also some stuff in the new decree for homebound people to earn indulgences, but because it’s not significantly different from the portions of the Vatican’s March 2020 decree on coronavirus-related indulgences for the homeboudn, and also you can do the Visit to a Cemetery mentally whether you’re homebound or not, it seems moot. )


Here’s the actual Vatican decree (Italian since no English, use Google translate):
http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/t...appen_pro_20201022_decreto-indulgenze_it.html
 
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Thats great because we still have no Mass here, or Confession. Visiting anywhere is quite problematic. Thank God for Pope Francis at this time.
 
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Thank you for sharing this, @Tis_Bearself! You are always a great source of information on helping the Holy Souls!

Eta: I imagine you have quite the fan club of saints in heaven now 🙂
 
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Just have the intention of going to Confession and Communion as soon as possible. Making a Spiritual Communion for each indulgence is a nice thing to do though not required.

To be on the safe side, I ended up asking my confessor after our shutdown of about 9 weeks in the spring if he could please waive all the Communions I couldn’t receive (About 70). We had confession all through the shutdown, so he didn’t have to waive that.
 
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Peonies said:
Eta: I imagine you have quite the fan club of saints in heaven now 🙂
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I am working on my Holy Alliance as Fr. Heilman always suggests, because then I can ask them all to pray with me and he says this creates a very big group of fellow prayer warriors to help you in time of need. For each indulgence you give to a holy soul, then that soul joins your Holy Alliance, and you also add a saint to pray with you and the saint also joins your Holy Alliance. I often call on my Holy Alliance to pray for me.

I am quite a solitary bear on earth so I am hoping when I go to Heaven I will have racked up enough Holy Alliance members for it to look like a big rock festival. It will be interesting to meet all the obscure saints who I add to my Holy Alliance chart because I ran out of familiar saints a year or two ago, and find out the details of their lives that were lost to time.
 
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I found the actual Vatican decree and put it in the first post.

I also edited my first post because in reading the actual Vatican decree (Google translated from Italian to English as there does not appear to be an English version yet), as opposed to the Vatican News article, it was not totally clear to me that the Vatican intended that we could get 30 indulgences for the deceased rather than just getting the normal 8, but getting those 8 on days of our choice in November and allowing for mental visits.
Therefore, to be on the safe side, I will err on the side of caution and only get 8 “Visit cemetary” plenaries.

There must be a problem with crowded cemeteries in other countries (perhaps Mexico?) because in the years I’ve been doing this indulgence, unless someone is having a funeral (which I just avoid by going to another part of the cemetery), there is hardly anyone at the cemetery when I go. I’ve even had people show up and watch me suspiciously a couple times to make sure I wasn’t doing anything untoward in an empty cemetery.

Transferring the dates helps though because there will no longer be an either-or between the All Souls’ Day church visit plenary and the Nov. 2 cemetery visit plenary, as one can be transferred to another day. So I can get 9 plenaries instead of 8.
 
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LOL, yes, as you’d expect I have an account on there and “own” the graves of my immediate family. I cannot get control of the graves of anyone other than mom, dad and spouse though.

I have used that website to find out more about some of the deceased for whom I pray. Also to find local graves of celebrities to visit during the first week in November. I’ve been to Pearl Bailey’s grave (it’s across from the local Dunkin’ Donuts) and Jim Croce’s grave. This year I was planning to visit Sid and Nancy’s grave (although some claim Sid’s cremains got accidentlly spilled by his mother down an air vent at the airport and never made it to the grave).
 
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Since the English translation mentions “extending” the opportunity from the normal eight days to the 30 days of November, I see it as increasing the opportunity to gain plenary indulgences from the customary 8 to a full 30. But I understand your interpretation as well. Hopefully we’ll get more clarity.

“…the Plenary Indulgence applicable to the deceased by those who visit a cemetery has been extended beyond the normal dates of 1 to 8 November. This year, the indulgence can be obtained by anyone who visits a cemetery, even if only mentally, on any day in November, and devoutly prays for the faithful departed.”
 
Tis_Bearself said:
by visiting a cemetery, even mentally,
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Sounds like something the current Vatican would come up with.

So much for having to “carry your cross” and actually have to work a bit to gain an indulgence. Like meatless Fridays and fasting, gaining indulgences will just eventually go the easy route like everything else.

Rant over.
 
I consider this to be a great act of charity for the Holy Souls. Anything that encourages mercy towards those suffering in purgatory should not be ridiculed, especially when many elderly (who might have very willingly and happily gone to pray in a cemetery any other year) are sheltering in place.

Nothing in this announcement from the Vatican prevents people from carrying their cross nor does it eliminate suffering in our lives. It does not benefit the living in any way. It does greatly benefit the Holy Souls.

Begrudging an act of mercy towards the Holy Souls seems quite unkind.
 
They made it clear they’re responding to bishops who were worried about crowds gathering at cemeteries. I understand that in some countries, a lot of people go to the cemetery the first week of November because it’s a cultural tradition to visit and even decorate graves. Obviously such gatherings might spread COVID or run afoul of local public health restrictions.

The type of people I’ve met who get plenary indulgences are hardly “lazy Catholics”. They do more prayer and worship activities than the norm. And many of them are senior citizens who are in the high risk group for COVID.

And since the benefit of the indulgences here is going entirely to the Poor Souls in Purgatory, how is it bad that the Church is making it easier to help the faithful departed? You’re perfectly free to do more if you wish but it’s not like people are doing this to help themselves. The Church is trying to give people a way to help the Holy Souls without a public gathering. That’s all.

I also see both this and the March decree as the Church trying to encourage people to pray by all means at their disposal. Prayer is what’s needed in these difficult times. Prayer helps the world, helps the person praying, and reduces anxiety. Whether you pray from your home or in the middle of a cemetery, it’s a good thing.
 
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“Mentally imagining” yourself in the middle of a scene is a very Jesuit technique.

I heard this morning that in Rome they’re talking about another possible quarantine.
 
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Thank you for this website! I found my parents headstone in their catalogue with a picture. I haven’t been able to visit their graves in years. ❤️❤️❤️
 
Thank you. I remain confused on plenary indulgence for the deceased as to time…When is one allowed to believe they are in heaven…
 
You can have the hope of heaven for any person at any time. However, we cannot ever know for sure while we’re on earth whether someone is or is not in heaven.

Additionally, if you do a plenary indulgence for your grandma’s soul, but your grandma is actually in heaven already, then God will use the plenary indulgence to help another soul who needs it, so your prayers are never wasted.
 
I’m so happy! This has been A DAY, so to read this tonight - that I brightened someone’s day - is such a blessing.
 
I think the “even mentally” is applied to the prayers not the visit. You can pray mentally, but you need to visit the cemetery, fisically, in any 8 days in November.

The usual indulgence includes the same “mentally”, that’s not new. The new part is the month-long time to do the visit.

Here is the 4th latin edition of the “manual of indugences”: Enchiridion Indulgentiarum quarto editur

And here is the usual indugence for november 1st to 8, in latin:
29
Pro fidelibus defunctis

§ 1. Plenaria indulgentia , animabus in Purgatorio detentis tantummodo applicabilis, conceditur christifideli qui

1 singulis diebus, a primo usque ad octavum novembris, coemeterium devote visitaverit et, vel mente tantum, pro defunctis exoraverit;
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The new decree says:
a.- plenaria Indulgentia pro pie visitantibus coemeterium et, vel mente tantum, pro defunctis exorantibus, singulis octo diebus, more solito a primo usque ad octavum Novembris tantum adfixa, pro fidelium utilitate, in alios dies usque ad octo, etiam seiunctos, intra mensem Novembrem transferri possit, a singulis fidelibus libere eligendos;
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I understand that we must go to cemetery, fisically. And pray, at least, mentally, as usual.

Anyway, I think that the Special Indugence from March are still working, so we can earn the indulgence by praying the Rosary (and other actions) “to implore from Almighty God the end of the epidemic, relief to those who are afflicted and eternal salvation to those the Lord has called to Himself.”
 
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