What’s an indulgence and how do I get one?

Hello Mason & Teo,

I heard the pope was granting plenary indulgences for those that went to pray before St. Damien’s relic. What’s an indulgence? How do you get them? (Mystified)

Dear Mystified,

We are so blessed to have St. Damien in our midst to intercede for us.

The term “indulgence” comes from a Latin word meaning “kindness” or “favor.” It eventually came to mean the remission of a tax or debt.

God allows the Catholic Church to attach to certain actions or prayers an indulgence, which, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church describes it, is a “remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.”

The catechism continues by saying that the one who gains an indulgence must be “duly disposed” to do so and must fulfill “certain prescribed conditions.”

What does this all mean?

Imagine for a moment that you are a child playing baseball in the yard and your ball accidentally shatters your neighbor’s window. As a good child, you confess your mistake to your neighbor and the neighbor forgives you. But the window is still broken. Now you have to fix the damage.

After you sin, you may have gone to confession and been forgiven by God, but you still owe a “debt” to God. You must still fix the damage done to your soul by sin. Hence, an indulgence is a “treasure” the church grants us to repay the debt we owe God for our sins and to heal our “damaged” souls.

One can acquire indulgences for oneself and for the souls in Purgatory. One cannot obtain indulgences for another living person. They have to get their own. The Catholic Church is able to grant indulgences because she draws on the infinite merits of Christ, Mary and all the saints, including St. Damien.

Jesus gave the church the authority to grant indulgences when he gave St. Peter the keys to the kingdom of Heaven in Matthew 16:19. It was like giving St. Peter the combination number to the heavenly treasure vault.

Two kinds of indulgences

There are two kinds of indulgences, partial or plenary. “Plenary” means “full.” A plenary indulgence takes away all the punishment due to our sins. If someone received a plenary indulgence and died immediately afterward, that person would go straight to heaven.

The grace available in an indulgence is infinite because it comes from the merits of Christ, but our sorrow for our sins is a large factor in receiving these graces. One of the conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence is that you have to be truly sorry for your sins and never want to commit them again. This repentance opens your soul to receive the full effect of God’s grace in the indulgence.

Conditions for an indulgence

The conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence are:

1) Perform the action or say the prayer to which the indulgenced is attached;

2) Be free from all attachment to sin, including venial;

3) Confess your sins with true sorrow for having offended God;

4) Receive Holy Communion;

5) Pray for the intentions of the Holy Father (the usual prayers are the Our Father, Hail Mary and the Apostles Creed).

Pope Benedict XVI granted Catholics who visit and pray before the relic of St. Damien the opportunity to receive a plenary indulgence.

The decree was signed on Sept. 15 by Bishop John Francis Girotti, head of the Apostolic Penitentiary, the Vatican tribunal that deals with indulgences and with matters related to the sacrament of penance.

The decree stated that the indulgence may be received “during the entire journey of the relic.”

The indulgence was offered to those who attended a sacred function in St. Damien’s honor or engaged in “pious reflection for a fitting period of time” where his relic is displayed.

The practice of indulgences neither takes away nor adds to the work of Christ. It is really his work, through his body, the church, in raising up children in his own likeness.

“The Christian who seeks to purify himself of his sin and to become holy with the help of God’s grace is not alone. The life of each of God’s children is joined in Christ and through Christ in a wonderful way to the life of all the other Christian brethren in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, as in a single mystical person” (CCC 1474).

Indulge in indulgences today and you will find your journey to heaven on earth pleasing to God as it was for St. Damien.