Pardons from the church for certain sins in exchange of money?

Answer 1

Catholic AnswerYou are thinking of indulgences, but you're wrong. Indulgences are remissions by the power of the keys for the penances due to already forgiven sin. There is no pardon for sin that has ever been available for money, that is called simony, or the sin of selling something holy for money. The confusion comes from Protestantism protesting indulgences, and not realized what they are. Indulgences still are available, but they are no longer given in exchange for a donation to a religious cause due to problems in the past.

The sale of indulgences was an abuse prevalent in Catholic Europe approximately six hundred years ago. The Protestant Reformation helped bring the abuse to light; the Counter Reformation brought it to an end.

Nowadays, although there are some non-Catholics who continue to raise objections to this abuse (which ended nearly six hundred ago), you can't buy an indulgence even at the Vatican itself, and most ordinary Catholics and priests have never heard of being able to purchase an indulgence, and would be genuinely puzzled if you inquired about doing so.

In short, this abuse is long over, and the Catholic Church has managed to move on.

There were never any pardons for any sins in exchange for money. A pardon for sin comes from God and is given to men in the sacrament of Confession or Penance. An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment due to sin and is only given for a sin that has already been absolved (forgiven in Confession). The temporal punishment is, like, if you were playing Baseball and you threw the ball and broke your neighbor's window. You go over, ring the door bell, confess what you have done, and ask pardon. Your neighbor (if they are nice!) forgives you. That would be confession and absolution. Now, you are all forgiven, guess what? The window is still broken, and in justice, you should pay to have it repaired, cause you are the one who broke it. You have already been forgiven, but justice demands that you make reparation. Similarly, any time you sin, you damage the Body of Christ (the Church: all the faithful) and justice demands that you make reparation. Jesus Christ in dying on the cross, and the prayers and actions of the saints in heaven, particularly Mary are more than sufficient to make up for all the damage we have done. The method in which those merits are applied to you is termed an indulgence. To gain an indulgence one must be in a state of grace, have gone to confession, and received Holy Communion. Then one must do the specific act for which an indulgence is to be granted. At one time, that act included a gift of money for a specific religious purpose, such as building a cathedral. The gift was abused, and people thought that all they had to do was pay the money for the indulgence. Please note: this never, ever had anything to do we being forgiven for sin. Because of the abuse, it was discontinued.

Paying money for a sacrament, or any holy, or blessed thing is the sin of simony.

If you were asking for the name, they're called indulgences