Vatican Brings Back Indulgences
From the New York Times comes news that the Roman Catholic Church is allowing
indulgences again. The revelation compelled the Times to write this improbable paragraph:
There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a
certain number of days or years, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it, until another sin is committed. You can get one for yourself, or for someone who is dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1567 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There
is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.
Indulgences are an admittedly shadowy subject for those of us with a limited knowledge of Catholic theology. Even many Catholics often don't know what's up with them. But allow me, who has always found humor in the Middle Ages, to translate: Give money on earth and then spend less time in purgatory when you die.
Leaving aside the far-fetched notion that your priest's pocketbook has any sway over the amount of time you actually spend in purgatory, indulgences carry some heavy historical baggage. The Middle Ages witnessed the growth of extensive indulgence abuses. People forged documents certifying that indulgences had been granted. Later, middlemen extracted a fee from the faithful to to help them rack up more indulgences. In a practice that was obviously unfair to the poor, rich parishioners could simply give the church money in exchange for a fast track to heaven. Famously, Saint Peter's Basilica was paid for with the loot.
It got so bad that Pope
Pius V prohibited indulgences involving financial transactions, and even complimentary indulgences (which were granted for good works) declined in popularity. But today, as part of the Vatican's effort to restore many old-fashioned traditions, certain Dioceses have announced that indulgences are back and can be earned though charitable contributions. No word yet on which
charities count.
Vatican Fraud
How about good old fashioned fraud? The Vatican laundered Nazi money, Mafia money, and dirty money through the IOR. What's a few bogus indulgences to the list of rackets?
Indulgences never went away
I don't know where this ignorant report about the Vatican bringing back indulgences came from, but they never went away in the first place. John Paul II and Paul VI dispense countless indulgences in their pontificates. Sounds a bit like sloppy journalism to me.
Indulgences never went away,
Indulgences never went away, yes. They were, however, substantially deemphasized, especially following Vatican II.
It is unclear what you mean
It is unclear what you mean by "substantially deemphasized". The "Enchiridion indulgentiarum: normae et concessiones", the Vatican document which defines the norms and specific indulgences for the Catholic Church, has been revised four times since Vatican II (which closed closed December 8, 1965), in 1968, again in 1968, in 1986, and finally in 1999. Indulgences are an essential teaching and are codified in the Catechism of the Catholic Church sections 1471-1479. As one example of a very popular devotion through which a plenary indulgence may be obtained, available throughout the time period after Vatican II, which we are discussing, is the Marian Rosary recited in church as a group also requiring sacramental confession, sacramental communion, detachment from even venial sine, and prayers for the intentions of the Holy Father.
A correction: the first
A correction: the first Enchiridion date I wrote incorrectly as 1968, it was January 1, 1967, and all previous ordinances on indulgences were revoked at that time.