Catholic Church reinstates Indulgences
Yep, they're back. Apparently just going to confession and praying aren't enough to get you lowly sinners into heaven, you also need one of these babies. The Church isn't selling them this go-around, but they are bringing them back as a way to get Catholics to stop reading self-help books.
The NY Times reports:
According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament.
There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it. You can get one for yourself, or for someone else, living or dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1857 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.
1 comment:
I'm glad that the Church is making more American Catholics aware of the availability of indulgences! Of course, indulgences have always been available, but not all Catholics are aware of that.
Some of the NY Times article was a little mushy in its explanation of Catholic theology. The article should have added:
"In the Sacrament of Penance the guilt of sin is removed, and with it the eternal punishment due to mortal sin; but there still remains the temporal punishment required by Divine justice, and this requirement must be fulfilled either in the present life or in the world to come, i.e., in Purgatory. An indulgence offers the penitent sinner the means of discharging this debt during his life on earth."
Good post!
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