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In recent months, dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics a spiritual benefit that fell out of favor decades ago — the indulgence, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife — and reminding them of the church’s clout in mitigating the wages of sin…
“Why are we bringing it back?” asked Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who has embraced the move. “Because there is sin in the world…”
The indulgence is among the less-noticed, less-disputed traditions to be restored. But with a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated to explain.
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…
“Confessions have been down for years and the church is very worried about it,” said the Rev. Tom Reese, a Jesuit and former editor of the weekly Catholic magazine America. In a secularized culture of pop psychology and self-help, he said, “the church wants the idea of ‘personal sin’ back in the equation. Indulgences are a way of reminding people of the importance of penance.
I am old enough to remember how they worked. One of my uncles sent a very big check to the vatican – plus a smaller check was turned over to his local parish – and “poof” his marriage disappeared.
Thanks, Mr Justin
Ah, religion…
I’ll bet David Vitter will be making some purchases before his election…
Who said you can’t buy your way to heaven?
What, they didn’t learn from Luther the first time around???
Since conservatives never, NEVER EVER admit to their mistakes, that’s gotta bring down the numbers.
Expect a non-Biblical organization to promote practice that is self aggrandizing.
When the church is led by isolated old men who don’t have an effen clue about the world, this is what you end up with. The sooner the whole catholic church crumbles into obscurity the better off the world will be.
#6, The Catholic Church is non-biblical?
Oh, you mean non-KJV organization. Non-KJV STANDARD version, probably. The one with the mistakes. The one “translated” from the original Hebrew and Greek. Hmmm… who collected those stories and determined that they constituted “The Bible?”
Oh yeah, that non-Biblical organization, the Catholic Church.
Maybe you mean “non-Biblical” in that most Catholics can’t quote lines of scripture.
Maybe you mean “non-Biblical” in that the Catholic Church gives importance to its Catechism(derived from tradition as well as Holy Scripture.)
Maybe you mean “non-Biblical” in that Catholics are free to believe that Genesis may be a fanciful tale about how God created the Earth…. rather than a factual one. (as long as we believe that God created the Earth)
Maybe you just mean “non-Lutheran” as our Bible still contains all that nasty stuff that Martin Luther saw fit to rip out.
The Catholic Church has faults. Not adhering to the Bible, however…. not one of them. A better case could be made that most Protestant churches are non-Biblical, as they have made the most changes through the years to suit their theological needs…. but I guess that’s a separate argument.
7,
Why stop at Catholicism? The Big Three need to be taken down a notch…
The Hindus would be a bit harder since there are so many damn Gods…
8,
Nicely done. Of course, I can be glib since in my youth I was raised Orthodox and had church services in Aramaic. Catholics were pagans in my eyes…
#8, moony,
The catholic church had a cherry picking contest when they wrote the bible. They ignored the sections they didn’t like over the sections that suited their purpose.
Regardless, anyone professing that someone “magical” in the sky is responsible for everything is all the same. No, we don’t know everything about the universe and the planet we live on. We do know enough that all the church’s claims have been thoroughly debunked.
Unless, of course, there is something about “god” that is true. Oh, for instance, say, … how “god” created the universe? Or, why “god” in his infinite “wisdom” crippled my beautiful niece with spina bifida while allowing her fat slob of an ignorant mother to go on with life?
Please feel free to present any evidence you may have.
What? Does the Pope need a new pair of ruby slippers? The current Pope is not nearly the “shepard” and teacher that John Paul was.
What a load of crap.
11,
The catholic church had a cherry picking contest when they wrote the bible. They ignored the sections they didn’t like over the sections that suited their purpose.
Not exactly. At the start of Catholicism, the Roman Emperors had to balance between Christianity and Paganism. The most obvious example is Christmas / Saturnalia.
JC was more of a philosopher than a religious leader. He was all for demolishing the existing religious power structure for the old Do Unto Others golden rule thingy… which is more Buddhist and less theist…
I hope science can cure or prevent bifida one day…
#14: Plenty of cherry picking has gone on over the centuries. That’s why the Catholic, Protestant, and other Christian bibles exist.
The “Do Unto Others” golden rule is the only part of any of those Bibles that rings true, and is found in many other religions.
15,
that’s why I called it the golden rule thingy… every single religion and philosophy has it.
#8
Of course the Catholic Church adheres to the Bible. They are the ones that made it up in the first place.
Yes, I know I’m going to hell for that one.
Pope should lower the cost of forgiveness from 18 Hail Mary’s to 12 for non-violent offenses.
Wednesday forgiveness SALE: Any three at 8 HM’s
I hope they’re cheap since we all know the rich man has such a small chance of entering heaven.
The Golden Rule?—How would god like to be judged by someone he doesn’t believe in but is powerful enough to do it?