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S i d e b a r
HOW TO GAIN AN INDULGENCE
By James Akin
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 11
 November 1994 
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To gain any indulgence you must be a Catholic in a state
of grace. You must be a Catholic in order to be under the Church's
jurisdiction, and you must be in a state of grace because apart from
God's grace none of your actions are fundamentally pleasing to God
(meritorious). You also must have at least the habitual intention
of gaining an indulgence by the act performed.
To gain a partial indulgence, you must perform with a
contrite heart the act to which the indulgence is attached.
To gain a plenary indulgence you must perform the act
with a contrite heart, plus you must go to confession (one confession
may suffice for several plenary indulgences), receive Holy Communion,
and pray for the pope's intentions. (An Our Father and a Hail Mary
said for the pope's intentions are sufficient, although you are free
to substitute other prayers of your own choosing.) The final condition
is that you must be free from all attachment to sin, including venial
sin.
Because of the extreme difficulty in meeting the final
condition, plenary indulgences are rarely obtained. If you attempt
to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet the last condition,
a partial indulgence is received instead.
Below are indulgences listed in the Handbook of Indulgences
(New York: Catholic Book Publishing, 1991). Note that there is an
indulgence for Bible reading. So, rather than discouraging Bible reading,
the Catholic Church promotes it by giving indulgences for it! (This
was the case long before Vatican II.)
An act of spiritual communion, expressed in any devout
formula whatsoever, is endowed with a partial indulgence.
A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful
who devoutly spend time in mental prayer.
A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful
who read sacred Scripture with the veneration due God's word and as
a form of spiritual reading. The indulgence will be a plenary one
when such reading is done for at least one-half hour [provided the
other conditions are met].
A partial indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful
who devoutly sign themselves with the cross while saying the customary
formula: "In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Spirit. Amen."
Priests who administer the sacraments to the Christian
faithful who are in a life-and-death situation should not neglect
to impart to them the apostolic blessing, with its attached indulgence.
But if a priest cannot be present, Holy Mother Church
lovingly grants such persons who are rightly disposed a plenary indulgence
to be obtained in articulo mortis, at the approach of death, provided
they regularly prayed in some way during their lifetime. The use of
a crucifix or a cross is recommended in obtaining this plenary indulgence.
In such a situation the three usual conditions required in order to
gain a plenary indulgence are substituted for by the condition "provided
they regularly prayed in some way." The Christian faithful can
obtain the plenary indulgence mentioned here as death approaches (in
articulo mortis) even if they had already obtained another plenary
indulgence that same day.
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Catholic Answers
