Victor R. Claveau, MJ
The Catholic Church’s doctrine of indulgences has been a bone of contention between Catholics and non-Catholics since the time of the Protestant revolt. There are few doctrines of the Catholic Church that have been more grossly misrepresented by Protestant writers than that of Indulgences. An ignorant notion held by some of our non-Catholic friends is that a plenary indulgence elicits a complete pardon of the consequences of past sins, and indeed it does, but they erroneously add that it gives license to commit future sins—which, of course, it does not. Moreover, they allege that the most crucial condition for obtaining an indulgence is the payment of a certain sum of money to a priest—and nothing could be further from the truth. It is the purpose of this booklet to embark the reader on a journey of historical veracity so that Catholics and Protestants alike will emerge into a clear and unmitigated understanding of this wonderfully merciful but widely misunderstood Catholic dogmata.
The word indulgence is derived from the Latin indulgere, “to be kind or tender.” In Roman law and in the Old Testament[1] the term was used to express release from captivity or punishment. In theological language it is sometimes employed in its elementary sense to signify the kindness and the mercy of God.
What is an Indulgence?
“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.”[2]
“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.”[3] The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.[4]
Punishment is called temporal because whether endured in this world or in the next, it will last only for a time, in contrast to the eternal punishment of hell, which every serious sin deserves. The liability to eternal punishment that attaches itself to serious sin ceases as soon as the sin itself is effaced from the soul.
Punishment and Death are the Result of Sin
In the beginning, “God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good.”[5] The last of God’s creations was Man, more perfect than that of any other creature because “For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him. By the envy of the devil, death came into the world: and they follow him that are of his side.”[6]
Death could not have come into the world unless it was brought by man’s sin. God had given man immortality, “for the gifts and the call of God are irrevocable.”[7]
“Therefore, as sin came into the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all men because all men sinned.”[8]
But it is impossible that God can be bested by Satan, and he therefore decreed that “where sin increased, grace abounded all the more.”[9] The tree of life was no longer accessible, but God offered man a new grace through Jesus Christ, His only Son,[10] Whose Blood remits sin and gives eternal life.
Let us briefly review the Church’s teaching about sin and resultant guilt. When a man willfully offends God, his soul contracts a two-fold guilt in God’s sight (the staining or defilement of the soul, and the guilt of debt to be paid to the Justice of God). By offending God, man places himself above God’s law, and he deprives God of the allegiance that is owed to Him. This act of injustice toward God must be equalized by a comparable punishment, either self-imposed or by God Himself.
When a sinner wishes to be restored to God’s friendship (repentance) it is insufficient for him to propose to change his life and avoid sin. He must also feel an inward sorrow for his sins and develop a sincere hatred of sin; in short, he must have contrition. The Lord impressed upon his people the necessity for inward sorrow. “Return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments. Return to the Lord, your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, and repents of evil.”[11]
At first, when he fell away from the true Church, the arch-heretic, Martin Luther spurned and ridiculed Christ’s request for repentance. He denied the necessity of contrition, claiming that repentance was hypocritical and that it created greater sin. Luther taught that past sins should be disregarded, sorrow for sin was superfluous and unnecessary, and that one should merely expend efforts concentrating on how to behave in the future. Luther, in later years, recanted his teaching and acknowledged along with the Church the usefulness and necessity of true repentance for past sins.
In 1604, King James I[12] of England chose 54 men to undertake a translation of the Latin Vulgate into English. Although the word pœnitentia was used in the Latin Vulgate hundreds of times, not once was it translated as repentance in the Protestant version, which suggests that the omission was deliberate. The word pœnitere, as used in the Vulgate means precisely a change of mind, accompanied by sorrow and self-disapproval.
Upon confessing sin during the Sacrament of Reconciliation the guilt of stain is removed from the soul and the penitent recovers the grace of God. But, there still remains some debt to be repaid to the Justice of God in the shape of temporal punishment, for the “penance,” says Saint Cyprian, “must not be inferior to the crime committed.”[13]
Apostolic Pardon
In the Roman Catholic Church, the Apostolic Pardon is an indulgence given for the remission of sins. The Apostolic Pardon is given by a priest, usually along with the Anointing of the Sick – especially in cases where a person who is in danger of death. Prior to the Second Vatican Council, the Apostolic Pardon was called the Apostolic Blessing.
According to the church, a person who is properly disposed who receives the Apostolic Pardon gains the complete pardon of all their sins. The Apostolic Pardon also has the effect of pardoning the person of all punishment due for their sins, and prepares the person for immediate entry into Heaven.
Form:
The current form of the Apostolic Pardon usually takes one of two forms;
“Through the holy mysteries of our redemption, may almighty God release you from all punishments in this life and in the life to come. May He open to you the gates of paradise and welcome you to everlasting joy.”
“By the authority which the Apostolic See has given me, I grant you a full pardon and the remission of all your sins in the name of the Father, and of the Son, + and of the Holy Spirit.”
The older form of the Apostolic Blessing is as follows;
“Ego facultate mihi ab Apostolic Sede tributa, indulgentiam plenariam et remissionem omnium peccatorum tibi concedo et benedico te. In nomine Patris, et Filii, + et Spirtus Sancti, Amen.”
– “By the Faculty which the Apostolic See has given me, I grant you a plenary indulgence for the remission of all your sins, and I bless you. In the Name of the Father and the Son + and the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
“Priests who minister the sacraments to the Christian faithful who are in a life-and-death situation should not neglect to impart to them the apostolic blessing, with its attached indulgence. But if a priest cannot be present, holy mother church lovingly grants such persons who are rightly disposed a ‘plenary indulgence’ to be obtained in articulo mortis, at the point of death, provided they regularly prayed in some way during their lifetime. The use of a crucifix or a cross is recommended in obtaining this plenary indulgence. [14]
The Jewish Roots of the Doctrines of Indulgences and the Communion of Saints
Similar to the doctrine of Purgatory, the doctrine of Indulgences has its roots in Jewish antiquity. The Jewish Book of Knowledge explains the Jewish concept of the Treasury of Merit and the Communion of Saints as such:
“In the prayer he composed in the synagogue service and which he called ‘Shield and Quickener,’ the great Gaon[15] of Sura, Saadia (882-942 A.D.), hymned this praise to God: ‘He remembers the loving-kindness of the fathers and answers the children in time of their distress…because of the Merit of their Fathers.’
“At first glance, the concept of ‘Merit of the Fathers’ may prove puzzling to the modern student of the Jewish religion. For although it reveals no traces of the ancestor worship characteristic of some other ancient religions, it nonetheless does show a deep reverencing of ancestors.
“It is a fundamental principle rooted deeply in the ethical rationalism of Prophetic and Rabbinic Judaism that the individual believer stands independently in a personal relationship with his Deity. He requires neither prophet nor saint nor rabbi to act as his go-between, to intercede for him with God. Whatever merit he is expected to earn during his lifetime for his ‘heavenly reward’ has to be achieved by his own piety and good deeds. Nevertheless, the concept of obtaining grace through the Merit of the Fathers—which, quite obviously, runs counter to the cardinal principle of self-redemption through works of righteousness—remains also very influential in Jewish religious thinking.
“In a manner of speaking, the Merit of the Fathers stands as a concession by religion to the puny weakness of man, who remains aware that he cannot always help himself or pull himself up to a state of grace by his own bootstraps or feel with real conviction that he can win the favors of Heaven merely because he ‘deserves’ them, For whatever the individual’s communion with God seemed to himself feeble, or where his own moral achievement struck him as being inadequate, he turned to morally superior, even supernatural, mediating powers to succor him. During the Talmudic era,[16] and in times subsequent to that, whenever disaster threatened the Jewish collective or a particular individual, the Jews proceeded to implore the intercession of the spirits of those who had been recognized as morally illustrious in Israel. Most frequently invoked were the spirits of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs, slumbering through the millennia in the Cave of Machpelah[17] until the arrival of the End of Days. Distressed Jewish women in particular would call upon ‘Mother Rachel’ for help; their menfolk showed a preference for ‘Father Abraham,’ for ‘I will bless thee for the sake of Abraham, My servant’ God is quoted as saying (in Genesis).
“After these worthies, it was customary to invoke the intercession of the Tzaddikim.[18] These were the martyred saints and the Sages who, over the turbulent course of the centuries, had remained steadfast in defense of the one God, the Torah, and the Jewish people. Last to be called upon, though not least in the procession of ancestral merit, were the souls of the legions of fathers and mothers and grandfathers and grandmothers. Because their kin called on them for help in their hour of trouble or danger, it suggested that, to the reverent descendents, the beloved deceased—whatever may have been their actual merits of the deeds of piety and righteousness in life—had most assuredly entered into the bliss of celestial Eden and were already part of the godly company of Tzaddikim.
“It is well to remember that filial piety has always been intense among Jews, often overwhelming objective criteria of judgment. In Jewish life, righteous ancestor constituted, so to speak, royal ‘crowns’ for their descendents. Thus, to become a worthy ancestor—worthy ‘for the sake of the children’ and of the children’s children, became, for many Jews, a driving ideal. The third century sage Ze’ira, the little saint ‘with the burnt feet,’[19] composed a private prayer which he uttered daily: ‘O Lord, our God, may it be Your will that we keep from sin and not stand before our fathers in shame and disgrace because of our actions.’
“Behind the whole idea (of Merit of the Fathers) there flows a deep undercurrent of collective responsibility. Its sources are the ethical concepts of mutual aid and of the fellowship and unity of all Jews. Rabbinic morality proclaimed this doctrine with epigrammatic brevity: ‘All Jews are responsible for one another.’ The life of the individual was not considered his alone to lead; all lives and all destinies were seen as meshed and bound together inextricably in a historic chain of continuity without end. Concerning righteous ancestors, the Sages of the Talmud—some of whom were indeed poets of life as well as teachers of ethics and ritualism—declared by means of a parabolic analogy: ‘As a living grapevine is supported by a prop though it is of dead wood, so is Israel supported by the Merit of the Fathers, even though they lie still in death.’
“In every century and in all places wherever Jews lived, the souls of the ancestors were prayerfully invoked for their intercession in time of great danger, when life was threatened either by intolerable persecution or by epidemic, or when a loved one was mortally ill. The plain folk would hasten to the Jewish cemetery and there, standing before the graves of their ancestors, would implore their mediation for God’s mercy.
“Although the essence of the principle of Zechut Abot[20] is moralistic—that ‘the seeds of virtue germinate and bear fruit’ for all—still there were ‘wise’ ancients who perceived the danger to ‘the good life’ inherent in an excessive reliance by the individual upon the merits of his or her ancestors. An unknown Rabbinic teacher of ethics is quoted in the Midrash[21] as having said, ‘No man can share the joys of the World-to-Come merely because of the Merit of the Fathers!’ On the contrary, he urged, each individual must prove himself to be deserving by merit of his own deeds of loving kindness and uprightness in his dealings with others.”[22]
Jewish Belief in Indulgences and the Communion of Saints
The Catholic Church’s doctrine on indulgences is a legitimate outgrowth of Jewish belief in an afterlife and an individual’s final judgment before the throne of God. Orthodox Jewish belief is that the final judgment is but the culmination of a series of annual judgments, which take place on Yom Kippur (The Day of Atonement), the most important day in the Jewish liturgical year. Ten Days of Penitence also called the “Days of Awe” or the “High Holy Days” preceded the Day of Atonement. These Days of Awe are the first ten days of the month of Tishri, from Rosh Ha-Shanah, literally meaning “head of the year,” or “New Year”, to Yom Kippur.
The Day of Atonement has its origins in the biblical narration of Joseph being sold into slavery by his brothers (Genesis chapter 37). Jacob, the father of Joseph, was told that Joseph was killed by wild beasts. He received the tidings of his son’s supposed death in the seventh month, Tishri, and on the tenth day of the month, and therefore the children of Israel are bidden to weep and afflict their souls on this day.[23]
According to ancient belief, God keeps record books of our actions, both good and evil. We are told that on Yom Kippur the souls of all living human beings pass before The Eternal One, and their fate is definitively decided—who shall live and who shall die; who shall rejoice and who shall sorrow; who shall prosper, and who shall wax poor; who shall be raised up and who shall be set down. On the Day of Atonement God opens the Book of Life and writes therein the names of those who will live and prosper throughout the coming year. The names of the wicked, the resha’im, are written in the Book of Death. People have ten days—until Yom Kippur—to repent before their fate is sealed.
The central theme of the Days of Awe is repentance, or teshuvah, literally meaning “returning to one’s self.” The preceding Hebrew month of Elul is set aside as a time for reflection and soul-searching in order that the Days of Awe might be entered into with the proper spirit. According to Jewish tradition, there are conditions necessary for teshuvah—regret for past negative behavior, willingness to confess sins before God and a resolve to amend wicked behavior. In the words of the Psalmist, “depart from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.”[24] The opportunity to repent extends until the end of the tenth Holy Day, the Day of Atonement, when Jews fast as a sign of contrition. Yom Kippur is the climax of the 40-day “Season of Teshuvah,” made possible by the Divine capacity for forgiveness.
The Rabbis tell us that in the Jewish tradition, great emphasis is placed upon the responsibility to seek forgiveness not only from God but from his fellowman as well. The Lord forgives man his sins against Heaven (after sufficient repentance on the mortal’s part). Transgressions man commits against his fellow men can be atoned for only by definite actions to repair these wrongs, and by forgiveness on the part of those who have suffered these injuries.
Maimonides[25] taught that in order to secure God’s forgiveness, the individual must confess to having sinned, then repent, and finally resolve not to sin again. The process of sinning, repentance, and forgiveness is the central theme of the Day of Atonement liturgy; “Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray thee, according to the greatness of thy steadfast love, and according as thou hast forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” Then the Lord said, “I have pardoned, according to your word…”[26]
On the eve of the Day of Atonement, it is customary to approach those whom one may have wronged in order to beg their forgiveness and offer to make amends. The sages required the injured party to be “soft as a reed and not hard as a cedar”[27] and to display that same readiness to forgive which is attributed to God. In the Rabbinic view, a readiness to forgive is a virtue of great importance; one who thrice rejects a plea for forgiveness is himself considered a sinner.
Jews and Catholics believe that when a person is in total submission to God and allows God to accomplish His will, in and through the individual that person gains merit in the eyes of God. This merit is tangible and it offsets, or atones, for the person’s sins. Since the righteous men and women of old lived particularly holy lives, it is believed that they gained more merit than what was required to atone for their own sins. This excess or surplus merit was stored in the “Treasury of Merit” and it could be applied by God to benefit the living. This is why the Jews visit the graves of their loved ones just prior to the Days of Awe in the belief that the deceased can intercede before the throne of God in heaven on their behalf.
Saint Augustine described this concept as the will and the performance. “But is not this crown given in return for good works? Yes, but in as much as good works in the just are performed by Him of whom it is said, ‘for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.’”[28] What he meant is that we cannot take credit for any beneficial act that we perform because it is God accomplishing His will through us. We have free will and we can reject the promptings or the will of God. If we accede to the will of God in our lives, we gain merit and this merit atones for our sins.
These Jewish concepts are analogous to the Church’s belief in the Communion of Saints and the Treasury of Merit. The only basic difference between Jewish and Catholic belief is that Catholicism teaches that the Treasury of Merit is inexhaustible because of the atoning death of Jesus and the merits of Our Lady’s sinless life. It is through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and the saints that indulgences are granted through the exercise of the power of the keys given to the first Pope, Peter, and his successors.
Treasury of Merit
Sometimes called the Treasury of Satisfactions or the Treasury of the Church, The Treasury of Merit is the superabundant store of the merits and satisfactions of Christ, which went beyond the needs of our salvation, and to which are added the excess of merits and satisfactions of Jesus, Our Lady and the Saints. It is from this incalculable treasury that the Pope grants indulgences.
Insofar as God is the Creator and the Lord of the universe, there is no norm of justice that transcends him; God is the supreme norm, He is justice personified. God manifests His justice in that He, as judge, shows no partiality[29]—he rewards the good and punishes the wicked. The rewarding of the good and the punishing of the wicked is not merely a work of Divine Justice, but it is also an operation of the Divine Mercy, as He rewards beyond merit[30] and punishes less than what is merited.
God demands from the sinner repentance and atonement. For example, because he desired Uriah’s wife Bathsheba, King David sinned against the Lord by murdering Uriah the Hittite. David repented of this sin before the prophet Nathan and God had forgiven him, but God demanded the life of David’s son in recompense for his having scorned the Lord.[31]
Adam and Eve are the earliest example of the same principle. God had pardoned their sin of disobedience but He inflicted centuries[32] of the most rigorous hardships in remuneration of their sins. So too were Moses and Aaron pardoned of their sins, which were perhaps in our eyes but a slight transgression of the divine command, yet they were both punished by being deprived of ever enjoying the promised land.[33]
The punishment ordained by God for the sinner is above all retribution for the insult offered to God. We must make atonement for our ingratitude to God. If this satisfaction to the divine justice is not made in this world, it must be made, even to the “last penny,” in the purifying fires of purgatory. Such has always been the interpretation of those words of Jesus in Saint Luke’s Gospel:[34] “As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison. I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper.”[35]
All Christians admittedly understand that Christ’s satisfaction for sin is infinite in itself—it is inexhaustible. Moreover, Catholics believe that the good works of all the just believers who are living members of Christ’s body, are the works of Christ Himself, their Divine Head.
The Church has consistently and indignantly repudiated and denounced the Protestant doctrine of mere imputed justice. When God pardons the sinner, he does not cloak the sinner’s corruption with Christ’s merits—as the Reformers held—but he blots out the stain of sin from the soul, beautifies it with his holy grace, and enlivens it with his own divine life.
Each soul thus united to Christ may truly say with Saint Paul, “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.”[36] In such a soul, Christ lives and works. Therefore the good works of the just are not only meritorious of a reward but they possess an expiatory virtue—that is, they not only deserve a reward proportionate to their value in God’s sight but they also merit the remission of the temporal punishment due to sin.
This last effect of good works—the efficacy in remitting sins—may far exceed in value the debt owed to God by His justice. Of this, God alone can judge; He alone can estimate their value. But whatever is not needed by him who performs these good works for the remission of the temporal punishment his own sins deserve, is transferred into a common treasury—together with the merits of Christ—and placed at the Church’s disposal for the benefit of Her needy children.
Hence, when by virtue of an Indulgence, the deserved punishment is remitted, God always receives satisfaction—which he claims and which His justice demands. The debt due to Him is paid in full out of the treasury laid up in the Church—the inexhaustible treasury of the merits of Christ and His saints.
What is meant by “Temporal punishment Due to Sin”?
The following analogy is a parabolic illustration of the concept of temporal punishment: Let us suppose that a boy has just hit a ball through your window. He comes to you and asks to be forgiven and you grant him that forgiveness. You are considering however that the window still has to be replaced and the person who broke the window is the one whom you will hold accountable. Let us further suppose that the boy who broke the window hasn’t the money to replace it. You might propose that he may work off the debt by cleaning your yard, and the offender agrees. Allowing the debtor to work off the debt is an example of paying off our temporal punishments due to sin.
[1] 2 Samuel 12:1-18.
[2] Paul VI, apostolic constitution, Indulgentarium doctrina, Norm 1. See Appendix Two.
[3] Indulgentarium doctrina, Norm 2; cf. Norm 3.
[4] Code of Canon Law (CIC), can. 994.
[5] Genesis 1:31
[6] Wisdom 2:23-24 (Douay Rheims Version).
[7] Romans 11:29.
[8] Ibid. 5:12.
[9] Ibid. 5:20.
[10] Ibid. 7:25.
[11] Joel 2:12-13.
[12] He commissioned the Authorized Version of the Bible, published in 1611, which remains one of the most important English translations of the Bible. His religious policy consisted of asserting the supreme authority and divine right of the crown and suppressing and persecuting both Puritans and Catholics.
[13] 5th Sermon de Lapsis.
[14] The Handbook of Indulgences: Norms and Grants, (New York: Catholic Book Publishing, 1982), p. 57.
[15] Rabbi Sa’adiah ben Yosef Gaon; alternative English Names: Saadia b. Joseph, Saadia ben Joseph or Saadia ben Joseph of Faym or Saadia ben Joseph Al-Fayyumi;( b. Egypt 882/892, d. Baghdad 942) was a prominent rabbi, Jewish philosopher, and exegete of the Geonic period [589 CE (Hebrew date: 4349), and ended in 1038 (Hebrew date: 4798)], and was the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Arabic, he is considered the founder of Judeo-Arabic literature.
[16] 70 A.D. – 500 A.D.
[17] The Cave of Machpelahis the world’s most ancient Jewish site and the second holiest place for the Jewish people, after the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The cave and the adjoining field were purchased—at full market price—by Abraham some 3700 years ago. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Rebecca, and Leah are all later buried in the same Cave of Machpelah. These are considered the patriarchs and matriarchs of the Jewish people. The only one who is missing is Rachel, who was buried near Bethlehem where she died in childbirth.
[18] A Hebrew term literally meaning “righteous one” but used to refer to holy men who can, for example, perform miracles or act as a “pipeline” between man and God.
[19] Rabbi Ze’ira (fourth century A.D.) was called “the little one with burned legs,” or “the dark, burned one with the stubby legs.” It is said that he fasted in order to merit protection from the fires of Gehenna and that he then tested himself every thirty days by sitting in the fire without coming to harm, until one day the sages distracted him (cast an eye upon him) and his legs were burned.
[20] Zechut abot is the doctrine by which we benefit from the good deeds of those who came before us.
[21] Midrash is a form of rabbinic literature. There are two types of midrash: midrash aggada and midrash halakha.
Midrash aggada can best be described as a form of storytelling that explores ethics and values in biblical texts. (“Aggada” literally means “story” or “telling” in Hebrew.) It can take any biblical word or verse and interpret it to answer a question or explain something in the text. Whereas midrash aggada focuses on biblical characters as they pertain to values and ideas, midrash halakha focuses on Jewish law and practice. Midrash halakha attempts to take biblical texts that are either general or unclear and to clarify what they mean.
[22] Ausubel, Nathan, The Book of Jewish Knowledge, (New York: Crown Publishers, Inc). 1964, pp. 278-279.
[23] Ginzberg,Louis. The Legends of the Jews, (Philadelphia: The Jewish Publication Society), 1948, Vol. II, p. 27.
[24] Psalm 34:30.
[25] A preeminent medieval Sephardic Jewish philosopher and astronomer, became one of the most prolific and influential Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. Born in Córdoba (present-day Spain), in 1135 or 1138, he died in 1204.
[26] Numbers 14:19-20).
[27] Rabbi Simeon ben Eleazar, as quoted by Michael L. Rodkinson in the New Edition of the Babylonian Talmud, (Boston: The Talmud Society) Vol. VII, 1918, p. 53.
[28] Philippians 2:13.
[29] Romans 2:11.
[30] Matthew 19:29.
[31] 2 Samuel 12:1-18.
[32] Genesis 5:5.
[33] Numbers 20; Deuteronomy 36.
[34] See also and Matthew 5:25.
[35] Luke 12:58-59.
[36] Galatians 2:20.