Vatican News English gave weird info on indulgence practice

[Tis_Bearself]

I watched the Pope’s Urbi et Orbi blessing live on EWTN this morning to get the plenary indulgence, and was a bit surprised to hear the English-language commentator give out some strange information on the plenary indulgence. I thought maybe I was groggy and heard incorrectly as I was out late last night, only got about 4 hours sleep before 6 am, and went back to sleep the minute the Pope finished blessing us. I just re-watched the footage, which is up on Vatican News English so I’m not sure if the English-language commentator is from EWTN or Vatican News, and confirmed that she said some odd stuff about the plenary indulgence.

The video is linked below, the Urbi et Orbi blessing starts at 16:00 and the commentary I’m talking about starts at 18:08 . Commentator says that the other acts of the plenary are communion and confession “within a week” and a prayer for our Holy Father, “the recitation of the Creed.”

Issues with this:

1. Nowhere does she mention the important conditions of being in a state of grace when you receive the Blessing, and being free from all attachment to sin, even venial sin.
2. Communion “within a week” is probably okay to say, but confession is still permitted to be within 20 days before or after as far as I know. I Googled this morning to see if it had somehow been changed back to the old time limit of 8 days (as the 20-day extension dates from the Year of Mercy when it was extended and just left extended) but I found nothing. If anyone knows of a rules change let me know.
3. The “recitation of a prayer for the Holy Father” is correct, but it does not need to be “the Creed” and in fact Norm 20, section 5 of the Manual suggests 1 Our Father and 1 Hail Mary. This is probably a minor point as the Creed will work, but given that the Creed is actually required for certain indulgences but not this one, it made me wonder about the quality of research happening here.

Now I am sure that God will give people who mean well some type of indulgence anyway (at least a partial) even if they do the wrong thing based on misinformation, but honestly it does not bolster my confidence in whatever Catholic news organization (not sure if it’s Vatican News or EWTN) is employing a commentator who cannot speak accurately on Church practice to a worldwide audience. It makes me wonder what else she gets wrong.

 

[acanonlawyer]

It makes me wonder what else she gets wrong.

Sometimes, you just never know… I don’t know who that commentator was nor do I know where she would have gotten her information.

As to your points, I think you’re right…with one exception. The 20 (or so) day limit for confession goes back to a time prior to the year of mercy. This limit was mentioned in a statement from the Apostolic Penitentiary from…well, I don’t recall the year but it was years before the year of mercy.

As far as indulgences go, we best depend on Indulgentiarum Doctrina from Paul VI and the current Code (which doesn’t say much but the topic is in there) and not an unknown commentator.

Dan

 

[Tis_Bearself]

You’re right as always about the 20 day limit going back further. It actually goes back to the Great Jubilee Year 2000.

https://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/indulgences_conditions.htm

Given that it goes back nearly 20 years, it’s interesting that I still hear priests announce from the pulpit from time to time that one must confess within 8 days to get a particular indulgence. Often they are traditional priests so I presumed they were just choosing to follow the old rule. But I have heard a couple of regular OF type parish priests say this too. I don’t complain about it coming from the pulpit, because if it gets someone to go to confession then that’s okay.

I was mostly concerned to hear this going out worldwide over the Vatican news because it sounded like the 20-day limit could have been revoked, which would necessitate a big change in my confession habits from twice a month to more like 4 times a month. I was relieved that it seems like the 20 days is still in place.