- Diocese of Santa Rosa

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- Message from Bishop Vasa
- Plenary Indulgence Possibilities - Always Available to the Faithful
  
  Message from Most Reverend Bishop Vasa
  
  Increased interest in the obtaining of indulgences is one of the benefits of a Jubilee Year. However, such an emphasis can give the impression that indulgences can only be gained during these specified times in Jubilee Years. Special indulgences on these occasions are usually associated with a pilgrimage or visit to a specified Church. The truth is that indulgences, even Plenary Indulgences, can be gained every day of every year – in your own Churches.
  The concept of indulgences requires an acceptance of the existence of purgatory since it is in purgatory that the “temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is forgiven” is worked out.
    To some this may sound like forgiven does not mean forgiven at all. Perhaps an example will help. Imagine that you broke a window on purpose out of anger and spite. Imagine your subsequent sadness, sorrow, remorse and then a resolve to go to confession. This you do but the window is still broken. In confession the sin is forgiven but the window is still broken. The priest will indicate the need to make restitution for the broken window and you may well anonymously send $75 or the cost of repairing the window to the owner of the now broken window but the window is still broken. Then you die with all your sins forgiven and restitution having been made but the window is still broken. The need to fix the window which you broke is a part of the “temporal punishment due to sin .” There may also be some residual delight, however small, in having vented your spleen on your neighbor via his window and this too needs to be spiritually resolved.
    Imagine also the intangibles which may flow from the action in our example. Perhaps the father comes home to find the window broken and wrongly blames and punishes one of his own children for the breakage. Who is responsible for that subsequent spiritual harm. Certainly, the father is uniquely responsible but you, who broke the window, have played an unintentional and unwitting part. The innocent child could well look at you and say that the punishment received was your fault, and, in some sense, the child would be entirely right.
    How do we make spiritual amends for all of the unseen and unintended consequences of our sinful actions? While responsibility to “make amends” is required, the truth is that it is impossible for us to have any genuinely accurate idea of the vast ramifications of our sins. Every sin participates in a cascading spiritual reality. Making suitable amends for all of the unforeseen and unknown consequences of sins is humanly impossible. As the Scriptures note: I tell you, you will not get out until you have paid the last penny.” (Luke 12:59)
  External actions alone are NOT sufficient to gain a plenary indulgence. One of the requirements for gaining an indulgence, is an authentic freedom from any and all attachment to sin, even venial sin. Being free from sin after confession is a lot different than being free from an attachment to venial sin. Yet the Church is quite explicit: “It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete … the indulgence will only be partial.”
  The Church has listed dozens of “indulgenced works” in its Manual of Indulgences some of which are noted below. As always, with indulgences, besides the indulgenced ‘work’, other spiritual and prayer requirements are necessary.
  The Manual for Indulgences notes that “beside the exclusion of all attachment to sin, even venial sin, the requirements for gaining a plenary indulgence” are:
- Requirements for Gaining Plenary Indulgencese
  
  Reception of the Sacrament of Reconciliation within several days of the indulgenced work.
  Eucharistic communion worthily received on the same day, if possible, as the indulgenced work, or at least within several days of the indulgenced work. (While it is not necessary to receive the Sacrament of Reconciliation for each Plenary Indulgence, a separate reception of Holy Communion is required for each Plenary Indulgence.)
  The recitation of, at least, an Our Father and a Hail Mary for the intentions of the Holy Father.
  One of the following specified indulgenced works must be completed. For a more complete list go to: (www.catholic.org/prayers/indulgw.php).
- Indulgenced Works from the Manual of Indulgences
  
  Visit the Blessed Sacrament for adoration (not necessarily Exposition) lasting at least a half hour. (Grant 7)
  A Plenary Indulgence is granted to the faithful who receive Holy Communion for the first time or who devoutly assist at the first Holy Communion of others. (Grant 8, 1)
  A Plenary Indulgence is granted to the faithful, on any of the Fridays of Lent, who after receiving Holy Communion, devoutly recite the following prayer before a crucifix: Behold, O kind and sweet Jesus, I cast myself upon my knees in thy sight, and with the most fervent desire of my soul, I pray and beseech thee that thou would impress upon my heart lively sentiments of faith, hope, and charity, with a true contrition for my sins and a firm purpose of amendment; while with deep affection and grief of soul I ponder within myself and mentally contemplate thy five wounds having before my eyes the words which David the prophet put on thy lips concerning thee: “My hands and my feet they have pierced, they have numbered all my bones.” (Grant 8, 2)
  Devoutly recite five decades of the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, in a family, in a religious community or in general when several of the faithful gather for some honest purpose. (Grant 17)
  A Plenary Indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory is granted on any and each day from November 1 to 8, to the faithful who visit a cemetery and pray for the departed. (Grant 29, 1)
  A Plenary Indulgence, applicable only to the souls in purgatory is granted on November 2, All Souls’ Day, to the faithful who visit a church or oratory and recite an Our Father and the Creed. (Grant 29, 2)
  Read Sacred Scripture as spiritual reading, from a text approved by competent authority and with the reverence due to the divine word, for at least half an hour. (Grant 30)
  Only one Plenary Indulgence can be gained each day.
  The designated ‘work’ must be performed devoutly and with interior reverence and thus cannot be done in a haphazard or perfunctory fashion.
  Only God can know if the degree of devotion or interior reverence merits the indulgence.
  Indulgences can always be applied either to oneself or to the souls of the deceased, but they cannot be applied to other persons living on earth. (For a fuller list of possible indulgence opportunities go to: www.catholic.org/prayers/indulgw.php)