Bulletins

October 31, 2022

An indulgence, which is called plenary or partial depending on whether the Church remits all or part of one’s temporal punishment, is the remission of temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. Rather than a short-cut to heaven, the conditions for gaining a plenary indulgence inspire and de-mand a life of holiness.

Those “usual conditions” are that one must

• be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the time the prescribed works are complet-ed (Norms for Indulgences, 20 1),
• have at least the general intention of receiving the indul-gence (Ibid., 20 2),
• receive absolution in sacramental confession within sev-eral days preceding or following the work (Ibid., 23 2),
• be free from all attachment to sin (Ibid., 23 1); and one must for each indulgenced work, ideally on the same day as the work:
• receive Holy Eucharist (Ibid., 23 1-3) and
• offer prayers for the intentions of the pope (Ibid., 23 1-3).

In the next days we will have many opportunities for indulgences. The Feast of the Kingship of Our Lord Jesus Christ [ Ibid., no. 2 ] is the last Sunday of the Year in the Ordinary Form calendar and the last Sunday of October in the Ex-traordinary Form calendar. On those days the Church per-mits us a plenary indulgence for reciting publicly the “Act of Dedication of the Human Race to Jesus Christ King of the Universe”.

Any of the first eight days of November [ Ibid., no. 29 § 1, 1° ] the Church asks us to make a devout visit to a cemetery to obtain a plenary indulgence for the souls in purgatory.

On November 2, the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed [ Ibid., no. 29 § 1, 2° ] the Church asks us to visit a church or oratory and recite the Our Father and the Creed to obtain a plenary indulgence for the souls in purgatory.

Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them. May they rest in peace.

Rev. Christopher J. Pollard

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