Foolish CrossEngaging culture with the foolishness of the cross.

 

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. 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, and plenary indulgences, which eliminate all of it. You can get one for yourself, or for someone else, living or dead.

Of course, you cannot “buy” and indulgence. The article points out that indulgences are not for sale, but “but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one.”

Why the return of the indulgence? According to Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn: “Because there is sin in the world.” Overall, Catholics are going to confession in declining numbers for years and indulgences are a way of bringing the idea of sin and the importance of personal penance back into the conversation.

These developments sadden me. I can agree that we need to talk more about personal sin. However, this is not context I was hoping for. Not only (in my very humble opinion) is the concept of purgatory unsupported in Scripture (I suppose this is not a problem if you are a Catholic as you might point to Church Tradition), but the idea that one can “do” in order to influence God’s forgiveness is absurd. In response, I point to John’s Gospel and the words of Jesus from upon the cross: “It is finished.”