What is a Catholic indulgence?

The doctrine

Catholic teaching distinguishes two consequences of sin:

1. The eternal punishment of mortal sin (separation from God forever in hell). This is removed when the sin itself is forgiven, ordinarily through the sacrament of Confession.
2. The temporal punishment of sin: the residual disorder that remains in the soul and the world after even forgiven sin. This is the consequence of any sin (mortal or venial) that has not been fully purified by penance, prayer, suffering, charity, and growth in holiness.

An indulgence does not forgive sin; the sin must already have been forgiven (through Confession for mortal sin, or through perfect contrition for venial sin). What the indulgence remits is the temporal punishment of forgiven sin: the further purification that would otherwise be undergone in this life or in purgatory.¹

Plenary and partial

Indulgences are of two kinds:

• Plenary: a full remission of all the temporal punishment due to all forgiven sins of the recipient.
• Partial: a remission of part of the temporal punishment.

A plenary indulgence requires four conditions, all of which must be satisfied (the conditions other than the prescribed work may be satisfied within several days before or after):

1. Sacramental Confession (within several days before or after).
2. Eucharistic Communion (ordinarily on the day of the prescribed work).
3. Prayer for the intentions of the Pope (typically an Our Father and Hail Mary).
4. Complete detachment from all sin, even venial. This last condition is the most demanding; if it is not fully present, the indulgence is granted as a partial indulgence rather than plenary.

A partial indulgence requires only the prescribed work and the state of grace. Both plenary and partial indulgences may be applied to oneself or to a soul in purgatory; they may not be applied to another living person.

The Treasury of the Church

The doctrinal foundation of indulgences is the doctrine of the Treasury of the Church: the infinite merits of Christ's Passion and Resurrection, joined to the merits of the saints, constitute a treasury that the Church may apply to the spiritual needs of the faithful. The Catholic Church, as the Mystical Body of Christ, has the authority to dispense from this treasury through its hierarchical communion with Christ.²

This authority is exercised by the Pope and, through him, by the Apostolic Penitentiary, which publishes the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (Manual of Indulgences) listing the indulgenced prayers and works. Recent editions are from 1968, 1986, and 1999, with a 2017 revision.

Common indulgenced works

Many traditional Catholic prayers and acts carry an indulgence under the conditions specified in the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum. Among the most accessible:

• The Holy Rosary prayed in church, in family, or in religious community: plenary; with at least five decades and continuous meditation on the mysteries.
• The Stations of the Cross prayed in church before the stations: plenary.
• A half hour of Eucharistic adoration before the reserved Blessed Sacrament: plenary.
• A half hour of Scripture reading with reverence: plenary.
• Renewal of baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil: plenary.
• The recitation of the Anima Christi after Communion: partial.

What indulgences do not do

A common Reformation-era misunderstanding (and the abuse that gave rise to it in the late medieval Church) is that indulgences could be sold, that they could remit the guilt of unrepented sin, or that they could substitute for personal repentance. None of these is true. The Council of Trent (Session XXV, 1563) condemned the abuses while affirming the doctrine; Pope Paul VI's 1967 apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina gave the modern restatement of the teaching, with explicit emphasis on the personal interior conversion that the indulgenced work is meant to express.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1471 to 1479, on indulgences. ↩

2. Pope Paul VI, apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina (January 1, 1967), on the doctrine and practice of indulgences. ↩