What is an indulgence?

An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment that remains after a sin has been forgiven. It does not forgive sins, it cannot be bought, and it has never been a number of days taken off purgatory. Few Catholic practices are as misunderstood, partly because few were as badly abused five hundred years ago.

What is an indulgence?

An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment still due to sins that have already been forgiven. The Church grants it from the merits of Christ and the saints to a Catholic who is properly disposed and performs a prescribed prayer or good work.

The Catechism's definition comes from Pope Paul VI: "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church" (CCC 1471).

The Catechism treats indulgences at the end of its section on confession, saying they "are closely linked to the effects of the sacrament of Penance" (CCC 1471). An indulgence begins where confession ends: the sin is already forgiven, and the indulgence deals with what is left over.

How is temporal punishment different from guilt?

Guilt is the break with God that sin causes, and confession forgives it. Temporal punishment is what remains afterward: the disordered attachments and habits that sin leaves in a person. Forgiveness restores the relationship at once. The healing of the person can take longer.

The Catechism explains that "sin has a double consequence." Grave sin cuts a person off from God, which is its eternal punishment; see our post on mortal sin. But "every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory" (CCC 1472).

These punishments "must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin" (same paragraph). Someone who lied for years can be fully forgiven and still find honesty hard. The forgiveness is real, and so is the work that remains.

When David confessed his sin, Nathan told him: "The Lord also has put away your sin; you shall not die" (2 Samuel 12:13). Yet the consequences still unfolded in David's house. Forgiveness brings "the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains" (CCC 1473).

Where does the Church get the power to grant indulgences?

From two sources: the power of binding and loosing that Christ gave to Peter and the apostles, and the communion of saints. Because all Christians form one body, the merits of Christ and the holiness of the saints can benefit others. The Church calls this shared wealth its treasury.

Jesus tells Peter: "whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matthew 16:19). The Church grants indulgences "by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus" (CCC 1478).

In the communion of saints, "the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others" (CCC 1475). The Church's treasury is "not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries," but "the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God" (CCC 1476).

In an indulgence, Paul VI wrote, the Church "not only prays but by an authoritative intervention dispenses to the faithful suitably disposed the treasury of satisfaction which Christ and the saints won" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 8). It also wants "to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity" (CCC 1478).

What is the difference between a plenary and a partial indulgence?

A plenary indulgence removes all the temporal punishment due to sin at that moment. A partial indulgence removes part of it. A plenary indulgence can be gained only once a day, while a partial one can be gained as often as the prescribed work is done.

"An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin" (CCC 1471). The once-a-day rule has one exception: a dying person can gain a plenary indulgence even after gaining another that day (Indulgentiarum Doctrina, norms 6 and 18).

A partial indulgence has no fixed size. Whoever does the work "with a contrite heart" receives, besides what the act itself earns, "an equal remission of punishment through the intervention of the Church" (norm 5). The more love in the act, the more it is worth.

The Church's handbook, the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, lists the indulgenced works. Works that carry a plenary indulgence on any day include adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for at least half an hour, the Way of the Cross, the Rosary prayed in a church or with family or a group, and reading Scripture for at least half an hour (Enchiridion, concessions 7, 13, 17 and 30).

Partial indulgences cover ordinary Christian life: lifting the mind to God with a short prayer during work or trouble, serving people in need, giving up something lawful as penance, and openly witnessing to the faith. Another covers an examination of conscience with an act of contrition (Enchiridion, general concessions I to IV and concession 9).

How do you gain a plenary indulgence?

Do the indulgenced work and fulfill three conditions: sacramental confession, Holy Communion and prayer for the Pope's intentions. You must also be free of all attachment to sin, even venial sin. If any of this is missing, the indulgence is not lost. It becomes partial.

The three conditions are "sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent." If that disposition "is in any way less than complete," the indulgence "will be only partial" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina, norm 7).

The conditions need not fall on one day. The Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican office for indulgences, says it is enough to fulfill them "within several days (about 20) before or after the indulgenced act." One confession covers several plenary indulgences, but each needs its own Communion and prayer for the Pope (The Gift of the Indulgence, 5).

That prayer "is fully satisfied by reciting one 'Our Father' and one 'Hail Mary'" (norm 10). Canon law adds that a person must be "baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the end of the prescribed works," with at least a general intention of gaining the indulgence (can. 996).

Detachment from all sin is the hard part. It does not mean being sinless. It means not wanting to keep any sin, even a small one.

How can you gain an indulgence for the dead?

Any indulgence can be offered for the souls in purgatory, though never for another living person. In early November the Church grants special plenary indulgences for the dead: each day from November 1 to 8 for visiting a cemetery and praying for them, and on All Souls' Day for visiting a church.

Any Catholic "can gain partial or plenary indulgences for oneself or apply them to the dead by way of suffrage" (can. 994). "By way of suffrage" means as a prayer: the Church has no jurisdiction over the dead, so it asks God to accept the work on their behalf (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Indulgences").

The Penitentiary describes "the Plenary Indulgence for those who visit a cemetery and pray for the deceased, even if only mentally, normally established only on the individual days from 1 to 8 November" (decree of 22 October 2020). That year it was extended to all of November because of the pandemic.

On November 2, a plenary indulgence for the dead is granted to those who visit a church or oratory and pray the Our Father and the Creed there. With the bishop's consent it can move to the Sunday before or after, or to All Saints' Day. On other days, a cemetery visit or the prayer "Eternal rest" carries a partial indulgence (Enchiridion, concession 29).

The usual conditions apply, so someone who visits a cemetery on each of the eight days, with a Communion for each, can offer eight plenary indulgences. This is the heart of All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day: "one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them" (CCC 1479). Our posts on purgatory and how to pray for the dead go further.

Did the Church sell indulgences?

The Church never taught that forgiveness could be bought, but in the late Middle Ages indulgences were often tied to donations, and preachers and officials turned that link into a trade. The scandal helped set off the Reformation. The Council of Trent abolished the money trade in 1563 and kept the doctrine.

Almsgiving was a lawful condition for some indulgences. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that the doctrine "has no natural or necessary connection with pecuniary profit," but the practice "soon became a fruitful source of evil" (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Indulgences").

In Germany, Leo X renewed an indulgence "to raise funds for the construction of St. Peter's Church in Rome," with part of the revenue arranged to cover the debts of Archbishop Albert of Brandenburg, "a financial transaction unworthy of both pope and archbishop." On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther published his Ninety-five Theses in response (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Martin Luther").

At its final session in December 1563, the Council of Trent taught that "the use of indulgences, as most salutary to Christians and as approved by the authority of the councils, shall be retained in the Church," and decreed "that all criminal gain therewith connected shall be entirely done away with." In 1567 Pius V cancelled every grant of indulgences involving fees (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Indulgences").

Paul VI named the history plainly in 1967: indulgences had been misused through "untimely and superfluous indulgences" and through "illicit profits" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 8). His reform cut the number of plenary indulgences and dropped the old counting in days and years (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 12).

What do people get wrong about indulgences?

Three mistakes come up most: that an indulgence forgives sin, that it can be bought, and that it takes a fixed number of days off purgatory. None of these is Catholic teaching. An indulgence assumes sin is already forgiven, it is a free gift, and it was never measured in days of purgatory.

It does not forgive sin or permit it. An indulgence touches only punishment for sins "whose guilt has already been forgiven" (CCC 1471). Indulgences "cannot be acquired without a sincere conversion of mentality ('metanoia') and unity with God" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 11).

It is not for sale. Paul VI calls indulgences "free gifts" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 10).

It is not "time off." Older prayer books printed phrases like "300 days' indulgence." That meant the equivalent of 300 days of the public penances of the early Church, not 300 fewer days in purgatory, and "the reckoning makes no claim to absolute exactness" (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Indulgences"). Since 1967 a partial indulgence carries no "determination of days or years" (norm 4).

It does not replace the sacraments. The Church does not intend "to diminish the value of other means of sanctification and purification, first and foremost among which are the Sacrifice of the Mass and the Sacraments" (Indulgentiarum Doctrina 11).

The goal behind all of it is love. "A conversion which proceeds from a fervent charity can attain the complete purification of the sinner in such a way that no punishment would remain" (CCC 1472). Indulgences are one help toward that.