Indulgences and the Year of Jubilee.

Last November Pope John Paul signed a papal bull ("bulla" is Latin for "seal") formally proclaiming the Jubilee Year 2000 as a Holy Year. It will begin on Christmas Eve, 1999, and end on the Feast of the Epiphany, January 6, 2001.

The bull also names Bethlehem, Jerusalem, and Rome as special centres for the Holy Year and recommends pilgrimages to these places so important to Catholics.

On Christmas Eve, 1999, the Pope will inaugurate the Jubilee Year by opening and entering a special door at the Lateran Basilica in Rome. This door was first used to open a jubilee year in 1423, and symbolizes Christ, who is "the door of the Lord where the just may enter."

The bull also announces a new indulgence for the faithful for the Holy Year. And, since the daily newspapers have fixated on this indulgence to the neglect of other aspects of the bull, and have displayed the usual ignorance about indulgences, a correct understanding of them should be presented here (see also News in Brief, page 26). A complete treatment can be found in the Enchiridion of Indulgences published by the Catholic Publishing Company, New York, in 1969.

Who can get an indulgence?

Indulgences may be gained only by Catholics in the state of grace and only for oneself or for the Souls in Purgatory. They do not forgive sins but reduce the punishment earned by our sins, since, just as every good deed is rewarded, so every evil deed must be punished or otherwise atoned for. This punishment takes place in hell (for unrepented mortal sin), and in this life, or in Purgatory (for venial sin and for mortal sin that has been forgiven).

In this life we can reduce the punishment due our sins in many ways, such as by repentance, prayer, good deeds, and penance. But also by indulgences. Though indulgences do reduce punishment for sin, their primary purpose is to foster charity and devotion by giving religious value to the "humane, domestic, professional, social, and technical enterprises" of the daily life of the faithful, by helping them "to attach greater importance to a Christian way of life," and by leading them to cultivate the spirit of prayer and penance, and to practise the theological virtues" (faith, hope and charity).

The Mass and the Sacraments are not indulgenced since they are far superior to indulgences, but many prayers and many works of piety, charity, and penance are indulgenced. And an indulgence reduces punishment by the same amount as is reduced by the prayer or deed to which it is attached.

The doctrine of indulgences is such that most indulgences can be gained by everyday living. Three classes of persons receive indulgences:

(1) Those who, "in the performance of their duties and in bearing the trials of life, raise their minds with humble confidence to God, adding--even if only mentally--some pious invocation";

(2) Those who, "in a spirit of faith and mercy, give of themselves or their goods to serve their brother in need";

(3) those who, "in a spirit of penance, voluntarily deprive themselves of what is licit and pleasing to them."

All that is needed is a general intention to gain whatever indulgences for which we qualify.

Conditions for gaining an indulgence

In addition to these three types of indulgence the Enchiridion lists many prayers and pious exercises to which an indulgence is attached.

There are two kinds of indulgences. Partial indulgences remove some of the punishment; plenary indulgences remove all of it. There are three conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence in addition to performing the specific task required.

(1) The person must make a Sacramental Confession during the week before or the week after the task; and must also go to Communion on the day the task is performed;

(2) the person must pray for the Pope; any prayers will do;

(3) the person must be free of all attachment to sin, venial as well as mortal; if this condition is lacking the indulgence will be a partial one; and, though the Enchiridion does not say so, we suppose that the amount of punishment remitted will be proportionate to the degree of freedom from attachment.

Plenary indulgences may be gained only once a day. Some examples of them for Latin-rite Catholics are the ones granted to those who adore the Blessed Sacrament for at least half an hour; read Scripture devoutly for at least half an hour; make the Way of the Cross; kiss the Cross at the Good Friday service; make their first Communion or say their first Mass or celebrate the silver, golden, or diamond jubilee of ordination, as well as those who take part in any of these events; say the Rosary in a family group or in a church; renew their baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil. A plenary indulgence may also be gained for the Souls in Purgatory from November 1st to 8th. For Eastern-rite Catholics other pious practices are available.

Besides what can be done in the Holy Land and Rome, and in Canada as designated by the Bishop, the special Jubilee Indulgence for the Holy Year is a plenary indulgence for any of these pious practices: (1) visiting "for a suitable time their brothers and sisters in need or in difficulty (the sick, the imprisoned, the elderly living alone, the handicapped, etc.) as if making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them; (2) "abstaining for at least one whole day from unnecessary consumption (e.g., from smoking or alcohol, or fasting or practising abstinence according to the general rules of the Church)" and "donating a proportionate sum of money to the poor"; (3) "supporting by a significant contribution works of a religious or social nature (especially for the benefit of abandoned children, young people in trouble, the elderly in need, foreigners in various countries seeking better living conditions)"; (4) "devoting a suitable portion of free time to activities benefitting the community, or other similar forms of personal sacrifice."

Father Leonard Kennedy is an associate editor.