How does the Catholic tradition of indulgences work?

Answer 1

In Roman Catholicism, an indulgence is a remission of temporal punishment for sin. In simple terms, it saves one from the earthly punishment due for one's sins. The recipient of the indulgence must have confessed and received absolution, i.e. their spiritual sin has to be already forgiven. Only then may they receive an indulgence and have the correct spiritual disposition for it to be effective. An indulgence is granted by the Church for specific good works even to this day. Indulgences can be gained via pilgrimages, donations, certain prayers, certain celebrations, local feasts and privileged church buildings, etc.

Answer 2

An indulgence is the removal of some punishment for sin, either on earth or in Purgatory. It can be partial or plenary. Indulgences can be gained by certain acts, or may be given by the pope or a bishop on special occasions. Since you use the past tense (did) in your question, I assume you are referring to a specific historic incident that helped spark the Protestant reformation. Some priests (and bishops) who were eager to get money began offering indulgences in exchange for donations (supposedly, this has never been proved). Please note that indulgences are offered for works of piety and penance, which includes the big three: fasting, Prayer, and almsgiving. You can still get an indulgence for a donation offered for a good cause, but any impropriety is strictly forbidden.

Catholic AnswerThe Catholic Church has had indulgences since the very early Church when the people used to visit the people in chains waiting to be fed to the lions and ask for their prayers. Indulgences are NOT for the removal of sin, and never have been, and they are still very much in force. They are for the removal of the temporal punishment that is still to paid after someone has been forgiven of their sins. They can only be used by someone who has been absolved of their sins.

Answer 3

Prior to the Protestant Reformation indulgences were sold to relieve individuals of their sins by officials of the Catholic Church such as Johann Tetzel. The money earned from selling indulgences was used to build and restore churches and deepen the pockets of church officials in a period of economic hardship for the Catholic Church. Certain individuals, such as Martin Luther, felt the selling of indulgences contradicted Catholic teaching and spiritual belief.

Answer 4

Catholic AnswerThis is another, "when did you stop beating your wife?" question. You can't answer it, because the premise is a lie. The Catholic Church never sold indulgences, ever. Nor, for that matter do indulgences have anything to do with forgiving sin. You need to understand the Christian concept of the Body of Christ: we are all members of the Body of Christ by our baptism. When one of us sins, we hurt the entire Body. Our Blessed Lord died on the cross to forgive our sins. We apply that forgiveness to ourselves in various ways, the first of which is baptism which wipes out everything up to that point in our lives. After baptism, Our Blessed Lord provided another Sacrament to remove serious sin (and venial {less serious}), that is confession. When you go to confession you must have contrition for your sins, confess all of them, and resolve to never to them again. Let me see if I can explain this another way:

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To understand indulgences you must first understand sin and its consequences:

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When one sins, one damages the Body of Christ, as, by our Baptism, we are all members of the Body of Christ, and everything we do, for good or ill, affects everyone.

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Say you are in the street in your neighborhood playing softball. You hit one and it goes flying across the street and through Mrs. Neighbor's front window. You put the bat down, walk across the street, knock on the door, and apologize to Mrs. Neighbor. She forgives you, since you were nice, and owned up to your fault. Up until now we have the basic scenario of someone going into confession and confessing their sins.

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But wait, notice that in my example, the window is still broken. You have to go home and confess to your father and mother that you broke the window, they, in turn, take your allowance for the next several years and pay to have the window fixed. The broken window is the example of how we damage the Body of Christ. The allowance that you have to fork over for the next several years is your penance.

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Now, an indulgence is based on the fact that when Jesus was a man living on the earth, his mother, and the other saints down through the centuries, have done more good works than they need to do their penances (in the case of Our Blessed Lord, and His mother, they had no need of penances, so all their good works are surplus), so, the Church, through Her power of the keys, can apply the merits of those good works to your penance. So in the example above, the indulgence is your parents fixing the window for you, and you are still going to get your allowance. You might have to fork over some of it to help, but they are not going to impoverish you for the next several years.

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That is what an indulgence is: it is the application of the good works of the saints to make up for your penances. Please note that they are only applicable to someone in a state of grace who has already been forgiven. They have NOTHING to do with the remission of sin. Without prior remission of sin, there can be no indulgence.

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Now, any good work can be used to obtain an indulgence in the Church, the classic works of penance are prayer, fasting, and almsgiving. The one that causes so much trouble back during the protestant revolt was an indulgence attached to almsgiving. For instance, you can earn a plenary indulgence now if you go to confession, go to Mass, receive Holy Communion, pray for the Holy Father, and do a good work, say a Rosary in front of the Blessed Sacrament, or in a family group. You used to be able to earn a Plenary Indulgence for all the same conditions, but instead of saying the Rosary, you could donate ANY sum of money for some good work the Church was involved with. In this particular case, it was rebuilding St. Peter's Basilica. Because of all the hysterics and false rumors, that is no longer possible. Bottom line? The Church has never sold indulgences, ever.

Answer 5

Because indulgences are part of the treasury of grace bequeathed to us by Our Blessed Lord, and administered under His authority. The Catholic Church has no need to defend something that Jesus Christ instituted either directly or indirectly.

Answer 6

Another answer from our community:

Indulgences have commonly been issued for any of the three penitential works: fasting, almsgiving, and prayer. A bishop or the Pope would issue an indulgence for a particular work, for instance Pope Benedict XVI issued a plenary indulgence for the year of Faith (began October 2012) and it is granted (you may see the Decree below) along the usual conditions for reading the documents issued by the Second Vatican Council. The last time that an indulgence was granted for alms was in the 1950 Raccolta, that indulgence was granted to those who donated money to the missions. When Pope Paul VI revised indulgences in the 1960's all of those indulgences for alms would be subsumed under the 2nd General Grant: A partial indulgence is granted to the faithful, who in a spirit of faith and mercy give of themselves or of their goods to serve their brothers in need.

Answer 7

Catholic AnswerThe exact same thing as indulgences in the present day.

To understand indulgences you must first understand sin and its consequences.

Let me try to explain. When one sins, one damages the Body of Christ, as, by our Baptism, we are all members of the Body of Christ, and everything we do, for good or ill, affects everyone.

Say you are in the street in your neighborhood playing softball. You hit one and it goes flying across the street and through Mrs. Neighbor's front window. You put the bat down, walk across the street, knock on the door, and apologize to Mrs. Neighbor. She forgives you, since you were nice, and owned up to your fault. Up until now we have the basic scenario of someone going into confession and confessing their sins. But wait, notice that in my example, the window is still broken. You have to go home and confess to your father and mother that you broke the window, they, in turn, take your allowance for the next several years and pay to have the window fixed. The broken window is the example of how we damage the Body of Christ. The allowance that you have to fork over for the next several years is your penance. Now, an indulgence is based on the fact that when Jesus was a man living on the earth, his mother, and the other saints down through the centuries, have done more good works than they need to do their penances (in the case of Our Blessed Lord, and His mother, they had no need of penances, so all their good works are surplus), so, the Church, through Her power of the keys, can apply the merits of those good works to your penance. So in the example above, the indulgence is your parents fixing the window for you, and you are still going to get your allowance. You might have to fork over some of it to help, but they are not going to impoverish you for the next several years.

That is what an indulgence is: it is the application of the good works of the saints to make up for your penances. Please note that they are only applicable to someone in a state of grace who has already been forgiven. They have NOTHING to do with the remission of sin. Without prior remission of sin, there can be no indulgence.

Below is an example of an indulgence for All Souls Day, followed by the rules for all indulgences that are applicable to the Plenary Indulgence for All Souls Day.

from Enchiridion of Indulgences Norms and Grants, Authorized English Edition, translated by William T. Barry, C.SS.R., Catholic Book Publishing, Co., New York, 1969

13 Visit to a Cemetery

An indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed. The indulgence is plenary each day from the 1st to the 8th of November; on other days of the year it is partial.

Norms:

1. An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned. This remission the faithful with the proper dispositions and under certain determined conditions acquire thorough the intervention of the Church which, as minister of the Redemption, authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the Saints.

2. An indulgence is partial or plenary, according as it removes either part of all of the temporal punishment due for sin.

4. Partial as well as plenary indulgences can always be applied to the departed by way of suffrage.

22. § 1. To be capable of gaining an indulgence for oneself, it is required that one be baptized, not excommunicated, in the state of grace at least at the completion of the prescribed works, and a subject of the one granting the indulgence.

§ 2. In order that one who is capable may actually gain indulgences, one must have at least a general intention to gain them and must in accordance with the tenor of the grant perform the enjoined works at the time and in the manner prescribed.

24. § 1. A plenary indulgence can be acquired once only in the course of a day.

§ 2. But one can obtain the plenary indulgence for the moment of death, even if another plenary indulgence had already been acquired on the same day.

26. To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill the following three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment of sin, even venial sin, be absent.

If the latter disposition is in any way less than perfect or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled the indulgence will be partial only, saving the provisions given below in Norm 34 and in Norm 35 concerning those who are "impeded".

27. The three conditions may be fulfilled several days before or after the performance of the prescribed work; it is, however, fitting that Communion be received and the prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff be said on the same day the work is performed.

28. A single sacramental confession suffices for gaining several plenary indulgences; but Communion must be received and prayer for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff must be recited for the gaining of each plenary indulgence.

29. The condition of praying for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary; nevertheless, each one is free to recite any other prayer according to his piety and devotion.

31. An indulgence cannot be gained by a work, to which one is obliged by law or precept, unless the contrary is expressly stated in the grant; one, however, who performs a work which has been imposed as a sacramental penance and which happens to be one enriched with an indulgence, can at the same time both satisfy the penance and gain the indulgence.

from Radio Replies, by Fathers Rumble and Carty, 1942

994. I have heard Catholics speak of indulgences for the souls in purgatory? What are indulgences?

Do not mix up the ecclesiastical term indulgence with the modern idea of self-indulgence. An indulgence is not a permission to indulge in sin, but is a remission of punishment due to sin. Now in the early Christian Church certain sins were punished by long public penance, sometimes for days, at other times for years. But the Church was often indulgent, and loosed or freed Christians from all or part of their public penance, if they showed other good dispositions, or performed certain works of charity. The Church had that power in the name of God as surely as the state has the power in its own name to commute a sentence or even release a criminal altogether under certain circumstances. Christ said to the Church, "Whatsoever you shall loose upon earth shall be loosed in heaven." Matt. XVIII., 18. That the merits of Christ and of the Martyrs and Saints of the ages are at the disposal of the Church is also a consequence of the doctrine of the Communion of the Saints. And that power of commuting or even of remitting penances and expiations exists in the Church to-day, being exercised by the granting of indulgences.

995. What do you mean by an indulgence, say, of forty days?

An indulgence of forty days means that the Church liberates us from that amount of expiation of our sins which would be equal to a forty days' public penance in the early Church. It does not mean forty days less purgatory. Such an indulgence is called a partial indulgence.

997. Can indulgences be applied to the souls in purgatory?

Yes, but by God alone. We can but ask Him to accept indulgences on their behalf. But we can certainly offer them with a definite conviction of their normal acceptance by God for those we love, even as we can share our goods in this life with more needy friends. This too is implied by the doctrine of the Communion of Saints.

999. Do you deny that indulgences were sold in the middle ages?

They were never sold with the sanction of the theology of the Church. If unscrupulous individuals sold indulgences, such traffic in them would no more militate against the Church than would my own conduct did I myself adopt the practice privately.

1000. Pope Leo X. Sold indulgences in Germany to get money for St. Peter's. Do you think it right to sell pardons for sins?

An indulgence is NOT a pardon for sin. It can be gained only by one who is not in a state of sin, but who has previously secured forgiveness of his sins by repentance and confession. Then, and then only, an indulgence is a remission of further penalties due to sin. It is absolutely wrong, of course, to sell indulgences. Pope Leo X. Did not do so. There were abuses by some individuals in this matter, but they were never with the sanction of the Church. The Pope granted the favor of certain indulgences to those who would give alms towards the building of St. Peter's in Rome. But there is a difference between giving alms to a good work, and giving money to purchase something of equivalent value. Remember that Christ had a special blessing for the widow who gave her mite as an alms to the temple in Jerusalem. Would you accuse Him of selling that blessing for a mite?

1001. Are not Papal Bulls, and indulgences still sold in Spain, and cannot any crime be committed and an indulgence obtained, if sufficient money is forthcoming?

A Papal Bull is simply a Papal document with a leaden seal or bulla attached to it. It need have nothing whatever to do with indulgences. Indulgences have never been for sale as far as the Catholic Church is concerned, and are not sold in Spain or anywhere else. If a man commits mortal sin, not all the indulgences in the world could forgive it. They are not for the forgiveness of sin, but can be gained only after such sins have been forgiven by other means. Since they can be gained only by people in a state of grace they are an inducement not to fall into sin. And they may be obtained, not by money, but by certain good works such as prayer, almsgiving to the poor, etc.

Answer 8

The Roman Catholic Church sold indulgences to pay for the construction and maintenance of churches and for the proper support of senior clergy. Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar and papal commissioner for indulgences, was sent to Germany in 1516, to sell indulgences to raise money to rebuild St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. This mission led to Martin Luther's objections and eventually to the Protestant Reformation.

Answer 9

Indulgences have been used for many purposes. One of the very earliest was to encourage participation in the Crusades and later to raise money for their success. They became a common method of alms-raising, which gradually gave way during much of the Middle Ages to the general enrichment of the Church.

Michaela Davey (Mastering Theology) says that at the beginning of the sixteenth century, Pope Leo X needed money to finalise the construction of St Peter's in Rome and planned to declare indulgences for all who contributed.


A rather grubby, but by no means unique, example of the use of indulgences for totally corrupt purposes, is the case of Albert, Archbishop of Mainz, who had purchased the sees of Magdeburg, and Halberstadt, borrowing at interest to pay for the purchases, with the intention of selling indulgences to help meet the repayments on that loan.