WHAT
ARE INDULGENCES? What are indulgences? What
are the conditions for gaining indulgences? ***
Paul VI, in his Indulgentarium Doctrina, the Apostolic
Constitution on Indulgences promulgated on January 1,
1967, reemphasized the importance of indulgences and
renewed their arrangement. On July 15, 1986, John
Paul II issued a third edition of the collection of
indulgenced prayers and works, the Manual of Indulgences
(Enchiridion Indulgentiarum) adapted to the new Code of
Canon Law (Can. 992-997). These days, indulgences have been a bit neglected. They are primarily to help us strengthen our spiritual life.
On March 20, 1998, the Pope wrote: “The truth of the faith and the practice of
indulgences are directly linked to the Sacrament of
Reconciliation. In effect, an indulgence is the
remission before God of the temporal punishment due sins
already forgiven ... The follower of Christ, with
the proper dispositions and under certain determined
conditions, may acquire it through the intervention of
the Church. Since the acquisition of a plenary indulgence
first goes toward the detachment of the soul from its
attachment to sin, it is a marvelous complement to the
Sacrament of Reconciliation”.
Indulgences are the manifestation of the mercy and love
of the Father. The Sacrament of Reconciliation
alone does not exclude enduring consequences of sin from
which we must be purified. “With the
indulgence given in relation to a repented sin, there is
a remission of the temporal punishment for sins already
forgiven”. Thanks be to God, thanks be also to
the communion of saints which unites believers to Christ
and to one another. |