We just entered the second half of the Jubilee Year. Let’s remind ourselves of the meaning of plenary indulgence and the requirements to gain it.

“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 which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints” (Code of Canon Law, 992).

Indulgences are understood as a gift from God, through His Church, to help us in our desire for eternal salvation. While our sins are absolved in the sacrament of Penance, we are called to atonement for our sins, an aspect of our human nature. “While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. He should strive by works of mercy and charity, as well as by prayer and the various practices of penance, to put off completely the ‘old man’ and to put on the ‘new man’” (CCC, 1473).

The Church sets forth the following conditions for a plenary indulgence to be granted:

1. Be in a state of grace when the indulgenced work is completed;
2. Have the interior disposition of complete detachment from sin, even venial sin;
3. Have sacramentally confessed one’s sins; (20 days before or after)
4. Receive the Holy Eucharist;
5. Pray for the intentions of the Pope.

The Church also adds some extra clarification to some of these conditions:

• A plenary indulgence can only be acquired once per day.
• One may make a sacramental Confession and receive Holy Communion “within several days before or after the prescribed work”.
• One sacramental Confession can satisfy the requirement for several plenary indulgences, but separate receptions of Holy Communion and prayers for the Holy Father are required for each plenary indulgence.
• Pray the Apostle’s Creed and an Our Father for the Pope’s intentions.
• Indulgences can either be applied to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but not to other living persons.

Fr. Mark Jurzyk