For Catholics, Heaven Moves a Step Closer
By PAUL VITELLO
Published: February 9, 2009
The announcement in church bulletins and on Web sites has been greeted with enthusiasm by some and wariness by others. But mainly, it has gone over the heads of a vast generation of Roman Catholics who have no idea what it means: “Bishop Announces Plenary Indulgences.” [And whose, pray tell, fault is that?]
In recent months, dioceses around the world have been offering Catholics a spiritual benefit that fell out of favor decades ago — the indulgence, a sort of amnesty from punishment in the afterlife [hmmm… we are talking about the remission of temporal punishment, for purification, in the state called Purgatory, not about the unremittable eternal punishment of Hell.] — and reminding them of the church’s clout in mitigating the wages of sin.
The fact that many Catholics under 50 have never sought one, and never heard of indulgences except in high school European history [if then] (where Martin Luther denounces the selling of them in 1517 and ignites the Protestant Reformation) [don’t forget… the CHURCH denounces the sale of indulgences!] simply makes their reintroduction more urgent among church leaders bent on restoring fading traditions of penance in what they see as a self-satisfied world. ["fading traditions of penance"]
“Why are we bringing it back?” asked Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who has embraced the move. “Because there is sin in the world.”
Like the Latin Mass and meatless Fridays, the indulgence was one of the traditions decoupled from mainstream Catholic practice in the 1960s by the Second Vatican Council, [Vatican II "decoupled" indulgences? Or was it the false implementation of the Council and the dissent or laziness of clergy and religious?] the gathering of bishops that set a new tone of simplicity and informality for the church. [Vatican II set a tone of "informality"?] Its revival has been viewed as part of a conservative resurgence that has brought some quiet changes and some highly controversial ones, like Pope Benedict XVI’s recent decision to lift the excommunications of four schismatic bishops who reject the council’s reforms. [So… let’s tie the idea of indulgences to the screwy ideas of Williamson. Is that what is going on here?]
The indulgence is among the less-noticed, less-disputed traditions to be restored. But with a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated to explain. [I never had problems explaining indulgences… because I believe what the Church teaches about them!]
According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory before they can enter heaven. [IF, that is, they die in God’s friendship. But what the writer offered here is a distortion. The idea is that we sinners must do penance in life for our sins. We must make reparation. If we have not done that adequately in life, but we neverthless die in the state of grace, we are still to be admitted to heaven, but only when we have been purified of attachment to our sins or we have been readied by penance we must do out justice.] In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament.
There are partial indulgences, which reduce purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years, [The writer hasn’t taken the time to get up to speed on what the Church teaches on this matter. The Church no longer speaks in terms of days or years.] and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it. You can get one for yourself, or for someone else, living or dead. You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1857 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one. There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day. [I think we have to be careful with language like "earn". This is a matter of God’s mercy.]
It has no currency in the bad place.
“It’s what?” asked Marta de Alvarado, 34, a bank cashier in Manhattan, when told that indulgences were available this year at several churches in New York City. “I just don’t know anything about it,” she said, leaving St. Patrick’s Cathedral at lunchtime. “I’m going to look into it, though.” [See? If pastors of souls would preach about indulgences, people will pay attention.]
The return of indulgences began with Pope John Paul II, [HUH? They never went away!] who authorized bishops to offer them in 2000 as part of the celebration of the church’s third millennium. But the offers [Again, mercantile language.] have increased markedly under his successor, Pope Benedict, [This is silly. The writer should have looked back at the years before Pope Benedict.] who has made plenary indulgences part of church anniversary celebrations nine times in the last three years. The current offer is tied to the yearlong celebration of St. Paul, which continues through June.
Dioceses in the United States have responded with varying degrees of enthusiasm. This year’s offer has been energetically promoted in places like Washington, Pittsburgh, Portland, Ore., and Tulsa, Okla. It appeared prominently on the Web site of the Diocese of Brooklyn, which announced that any Catholic could receive an indulgence at any of six churches on any day, or at dozens more on specific days, by fulfilling the basic requirements: going to confession, receiving holy communion, saying a prayer for the pope and achieving “complete detachment from any inclination to sin.” [for a plenary indulgence]
But just a few miles west, in the Archdiocese of New York, indulgences are available at only one church, and the archdiocesan Web site makes no mention of them. [Not really true. Indulgences may be gained in many ways and in many venues.] (Cardinal Edward M. Egan “encourages all people to receive the blessings of indulgences,” said his spokesman, Joseph Zwilling, who added that he was unaware that the offer was missing from the Web site, but would soon have it posted.) [Great use of modern media, guys. Great job! Sheesh!]
The indulgences, experts said, tend to be advertised more openly in dioceses where the bishop is more traditionalist, or in places with fewer tensions between liberal and conservative Catholics. [grrr What a gross simplification.]
“In our diocese, folks are just glad for any opportunity to do something Catholic,” said Mary Woodward, director of evangelization for the Diocese of Jackson, Miss., where only 3 percent of the population is Catholic. At church recently, she said, parishioners flocked to her for information about indulgences. “What all do I have to do again to get one of those?” she said they asked.
Even some priests admit that the rules are hard to grasp. [embarassing, but probably true, given the formation of the last decades]
“It’s not that easy to explain to people who have never heard of it,” [Not really. Not if you take the time.] said the Rev. Gilbert Martinez, pastor of St. Paul the Apostle Church in Manhattan, the designated site in the New York archdiocese for obtaining indulgences. “But it was interesting: I had a number of people come in and say, ‘Father, I haven’t been to confession in 20 years, but this’ ” — the availability of an indulgence — “ ‘made me think maybe it wasn’t too late.’ ” [HOPE!]
Getting Catholics back into the confession booth, in fact, was one of the underlying motivations for reintroducing the indulgence. In a 2001 speech, Pope John Paul II described the newly reborn tradition as “a happy incentive” for confession.
“Confessions have been down for years and the church is very worried about it,” said the Rev. Tom Reese, [why do they still call these jokers? Will they ever change their Rolodex?] a Jesuit and former editor of the weekly Catholic magazine America. In a secularized culture of pop psychology and self-help, he said, [to which he contributed greatly] “the church wants the idea of ‘personal sin’ back in the equation. Indulgences are a way of reminding people of the importance of penance.
“The good news is we’re not selling them anymore,” he added. [rim-shot – wink nudge]
To remain in good standing, Catholics are required to confess their sins at least once a year. But in a survey last year by a research group at Georgetown University, three-quarters of Catholics said they went to confession less often or not at all.
Under the rules in the “Manual of Indulgences,” published by the Vatican, confession is a prerequisite for getting an indulgence.
Among liberal Catholic theologians, the return of the indulgence seems to be more of a curiosity than a cause for alarm. “Personally, I think we’re beyond the time when indulgences mean very much,” said the Rev. Richard P. McBrien, [another one] a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame who supports the ordination of women and the right of priests to marry. “It’s like trying to put the toothpaste back in the tube of original thought. [but not like trying to avoid plagiarism] Most Catholics in this country, if you tell them they can get a plenary indulgence, will shrug their shoulders.” [There’s a note of hope for you, folks!]
One recent afternoon outside Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church in Forest Hills, Queens, two church volunteers disagreed on the relevance of indulgences for modern Catholics.
Octavia Andrade, 64, a retired secretary, laughed as she recalled a time when children would race through the rosary repeatedly to get as many indulgences as they could — usually in increments of 5 or 10 years — “as if we needed them, then.”
Still, she supports their reintroduction. “Anything old coming back, I’m in favor of it,” she said. “More fervor is a good thing.” [Silliness eventually gave way to a Catholic sense about this.]
Karen Nassauer, 61, a retired hospital social worker who meets Mrs. Andrade almost daily for Mass, said she was baffled by the return to a practice she never quite understood to begin with. [And so her opinion is helpful for… what?]
“I mean, I’m not saying it is necessarily wrong,” [remeber… she doesn’t understand it] she said. “But I had always figured they were going to let this fade into the background, to be honest. What does it mean to get ‘time off’ in Purgatory? What is ‘five years’ in terms of eternity?” [How many errors were made here?]
The latest indulgence offers de-emphasize the years-in-Purgatory [No… not "demphasize"… eliminates!] formulations of old in favor of a less specific accounting, [again… the writer can’t get these categories out of his head] with more focus on ways in which people can help themselves — and one another — come to terms with sin. [?]
“It’s more about praying for the benefit of others, doing good deeds, acts of charity,” said the Rev. Kieran Harrington, spokesman for the Brooklyn diocese.
After Catholics, the people most expert on the topic are probably Lutherans, [?] whose church was born from the schism over indulgences and whose leaders have met regularly with Vatican officials since the 1960s in an effort to mend their differences.
“It has been something of a mystery to us as to why now,” said the Rev. Dr. Michael Root, dean of the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., who has participated in those meetings. The renewal of indulgences, he said, has “not advanced” the dialogue. [So what.]
“Our main problem has always been the question of quantifying God’s blessing,” Dr. Root said. Lutherans believe that divine forgiveness is a given, but not something people can influence. [That’s why we speak in terms of partial and plenary.]
But for Catholic leaders, most prominently the pope, the focus in recent years has been less on what Catholics have in common with other religious groups than on what sets them apart — including the half-forgotten mystery of the indulgence.
“It faded away with a lot of things in the church,” said Bishop DiMarzio of Brooklyn. “But it was never given up. It was always there. We just want to people to return to the ideas they used to know.”
Lot’s of problems in this article but the bottom line is this: if it can get people to ask question, let them know that indulgences are part of our Catholic life, and perhaps force clerics to preach about indulgence, then this article is helpful.
How do you get around?
From a seminarian reader:
Fr Peter Kennedy, the parish priest of St Mary, South Brisbane, Australia who baptises, not "In the Name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit" as Our Lord told us to do, but in the name of "Creator, and of the Redeemer and of the Sanctifer," or some such formula. Hundreds of these baptisms were declared invalid by the Holy See. Fr Kennedy also blesses homosexual unions, opens his Church to a Buddhist prayers, states publicly his lack of belief in key scriptural doctrines such as the Virgin birth, the Resurrection of Christ and Life after death.
There are criteria for music during the liturgical action.
FireFly on ASK FATHER: Is it a sin to take a 15 minute leave during a terrible homily?: “During the time that I was forced to attend a diocesan, aka Novus Ordo parish TLM, I had my fair…”
