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F e a t u r e A r t i c l e
A PRIMER ON INDULGENCES
By James Akin
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This Rock
Volume 5, Number 11
 November 1994 
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YOU'VE heard it many times: "Catholics
used to believe in indulgences, but we do not believe in them today."
This statement is heard from the lips of many Catholics, even from
some priests. It is said with mild embarrassment and a desire to close
a chapter of Church history with which many Catholics feel uncomfortable.
Those who claim that indulgences are no longer part of Church teaching
have the admirable desire to distance themselves from abuses that
occurred around the time of the Protestant Reformation. They also
want to remove stumbling blocks that prevent non-Catholics from taking
a positive view of the Church. As admirable as these motives are,
the claim that indulgences are not part of Church teaching today is
false.
This proved by The Catechism of the Catholic Church, which
states, "An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by
virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus,
intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the
treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the
Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishment due for
their sins." The Church does this not just to aid Christians,
"but also to spur them to works of devotion, penance, and charity"
(CCC 1478).
Indulgences are part of the Church's infallible teaching. This means
that no Catholic is at liberty to ignore or disbelieve in them. The
Council of Trent stated that it "condemns with anathema those
who say that indulgences are useless or that the Church does not have
the power to grant them." [Trent, session 25, Decree on
Indulgences. An anathema is, in this context, a decree of excommunication].
Trent's anathema places indulgences in the realm of infallibly defined
teaching.
This was not the first time an ecumenical council had discussed indulgences--the
first times was in 1415, when the Council of Constance affirmed the
practice--but at Trent the doctrine was proclaimed infallibly
for the first time.
The pious use of indulgences goes back centuries, far beyond the Council
of Constance, into the early days of the Church. The principles underlying
indulgences extend back into the Bible itself. Catholics who are uncomfortable
with indulgences do not realize how biblical they are. The principles
behind indulgences are as clear in Scripture as those behind more
familiar doctrines, such as the Trinity.
Before looking at those principles more closely, we should define
indulgences. In his apostolic constitution on indulgences, Pope Paul
VI said: "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 defined
conditions through the Church's help when, as a minister of Redemption,
she dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions
won by Christ and the saints." [Indulgentarium Doctrina
1].
This technical definition can be phrased more simply as, "An
indulgence is what we receive when the Church lessens the temporal
penalties to which we may be subject even though our sins have been
forgiven." To understand this definition, we need to look at
the biblical principles behind indulgences.
Principle 1: Sin results in guilt and punishment.
When a person sins, he acquires certain liabilities: the liability
of guilt and the liability of punishment.[The Latin terms for these
liabilities are the reatus culpae and reatus poena].
Scripture speaks of the former when it pictures guilt as clinging
to our souls, making them discolored and unclean before God: "Come
now, let us reason together, says the Lord: Though your sins are like
scarlet, they shall be white as snow; though they are red like crimson,
they shall become like wool" (Is. 1:18).
This idea of guilt clinging to our souls appears in texts that picture
forgiveness as a cleansing or washing and the state of our forgiven
souls as clean and white: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin! . . . Purge me with hyssop, and I shall
be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow" (Ps. 51:2,
7).[See also Ephesians 5:26-27, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 6:11,
1 John 1:7, and Revelation 7:13-14].
We incur not just guilt, but liability for punishment when we sin:
"I will punish the world for its evil, and the wicked for their
iniquity; I will put an end to the pride of the arrogant and lay low
the haughtiness of the ruthless" (Is. 13:11). Judgment pertains
even to the smallest sins: "For God will bring every deed into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether good or evil" (Eccl.
12:14). [See also Matthew 12:36 and Romans 2:16].
Principle 2: Punishments are both temporal and
eternal.
The Bible indicates some punishments are eternal, lasting forever,
but others are temporal, lasting only a time. Eternal punishment is
mentioned in Daniel 12:2: "And many of those who sleep in the
dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to
shame and everlasting contempt." [See also Matthew 25:41, 2
Thessalonians 1:9, and Revelation 14:11].
We normally focus on the eternal penalties of sin, because they are
the most important, but Scripture indicates temporal penalties are
real and go back to the first sin humans committed: "To the woman
he said, `I will greatly multiply your pain in childbearing; in pain
you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your
husband, and he shall rule over you.'
"And to Adam he said, `Because you have listened to the voice
of your wife and have eaten of the tree of which I commanded you,
"You shall not eat of it," cursed is the ground because
of you; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns
and thistles it shall bring forth to you, and you shall eat the plants
of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you
return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; you are dust,
and to dust you shall return'" (Gen. 3:16-19). [Scripture
is filled with other examples of God sending temporal punishments
on account of sin. See, for example, Genesis 4:9-12, Deuteronomy 28:58-61,
and Isaiah 10:16].
Principle 3: Temporal penalties may remain when
a sin is forgiven.
When someone repents, God removes his guilt ("though your sins
are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow" [Is. 1.18])
and any eternal punishment ("Since . . . we are now justified
by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of
God" [Rom. 5:9]), but temporal penalties may remain. One passage
demonstrating this is 2 Samuel 12, in which Nathan the prophet confronts
David over his adultery: "Then David said to Nathan, `I have
sinned against the Lord.'
"Nathan answered David: `The Lord on his part has forgiven your
sin; you shall not die. But since you have utterly spurned the Lord
by this deed, the child born to you must surely die'" (2 Sam.
12:13-14). God forgave David, to the point of sparing his life, but
David still had to suffer the loss of his son as well as other temporal
punishments. [See 2 Samuel 12:7-12 for a list].
In Numbers we read, "But Moses said to the Lord . . . `Now if
thou dost kill this people as one man, then the nations who have heard
thy fame will say, "Because the Lord was not able to bring this
people into the land which he swore to give to them, therefore he
has slain them in the wilderness"' . . . Then the Lord said,
`I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live .
. . none of the men who . . . have not hearkened to my voice, shall
see the land which I swore to give to their fathers" (Num. 14:13-23).
God states that, although he pardoned the people, he would impose
a temporal penalty by keeping them from the promised land.
Later Moses, who is clearly one of the saved (see Matt. 17:1-5), is
told he will suffer a temporal penalty: "And the Lord said to
Moses and Aaron, `Because you did not believe in me, to sanctify me
in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring
this assembly into the land which I have given them'" (Num.
20:12; cf. 27:12-14).
Protestants often deny that temporal penalties remain after forgiveness
of sin, but they acknowledge it in practice--for instance, when
they insist on people returning things they have stolen. Thieves may
obtain forgiveness, but they also must engage in restitution.
Protestants realize that, while Jesus paid the price for our sins
before God, he did not relieve our obligation to repair what we have
done. They fully acknowledge that if you steal someone's car, you
have to give it back; it isn't enough just to repent. God's forgiveness
(and man's!) does not include letting you keep the stolen car.
Protestants also admit the principle in practice when discussing death.
Scripture says death entered the world through original sin (Gen.
3:22-24, Rom. 5:12). When we first come to God we are forgiven, and
when we sin later we are able to be forgiven, yet that does not free
us from the penalty of physical death. Even the forgiven die; a penalty
remains after our sins are forgiven. This is a temporal penalty since
physical death is temporary and we will be resurrected (Dan. 12:2).
A Protestant might say that God gives temporal penalties to teach
a sinner a lesson, making the penalties discipline rather than punishment.
There are three responses to this: (1) Nothing in the above texts
says they are disciplines; (2) a Catholic could also call them disciplines; [Teaching
on indulgences, Pope Paul VI's stated, "The punishments with
which we are concerned here are imposed by God's judgment, which is
just and merciful. The reasons for their imposition are that our souls
need to be purified, the holiness of the moral order needs to be strengthened,
and God's glory must be restored to its full majesty" (Indulgentariam
Doctrina 2)]. and (3) there is nothing wrong with calling them
"punishments," since "disciplining" a child is
synonymous in daily speech with punishing a child.
As Greg Krehbiel, a Protestant who has written for This Rock,
points out in a privately circulated paper, the idea that all temporal
penalties vanish when one is forgiven "is the error at the heart
of the `health and wealth gospel,' viz., `Jesus took my poverty and
sickness away, so I should be well and rich.'"
The Catholic has good grounds for claiming temporal penalties may
remain after a sin is forgiven. The Church has shown this since its
earliest centuries and by prescribed acts of penance as part of the
sacrament of reconciliation.
Principle 4: God blesses some people as a reward
to others.
Suppose a father prays for his seriously ill son and says, "Dear
Lord, if I have pleased you, then please heal my son!" The father
is asking that his son be healed as a reward for his (the father's)
pleasing God. Intuitively we recognize this is a valid prayer that
God sometimes answers positively. But we do not need to stop with
our intuitions: Scripture confirms the fact.
After Abraham fought a battle for the Lord, God spoke to him in a
vision and said, "`Fear not, Abram [Abraham], I am your shield;
your reward shall be very great.' But Abram said, `O Lord God, what
wilt thou give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house
is Eliezer of Damascus?' . . . And behold, the word of the Lord came
to him, `This man shall not be your heir; your own son shall be your
heir.' And he brought him outside and said, `Look toward heaven, and
number the stars, if you are able to number them.' Then he said to
him, `So shall your descendants be.' And he believed the Lord, and
he reckoned it to him as righteousness" (Gen. 15:1-6). God promised
Abraham a reward--a multitude of descendants who would not otherwise
be born. These people received a great gift--the gift of life--because
God rewarded the patriarch.
God further told Abraham he would have nations and kings come from
him, that God would make a covenant with his descendants, and that
they would inherit the promised land (Gen. 17:6-8). All these blessings
came to Abraham's descendants as God's reward to him.
This principle is also in the New Testament. Paul tells us that "as
regards election [the Jews] are beloved for the sake of their forefathers"
(Rom. 11:28); the principle is also found in passages in which one
person approaches Jesus for the healing or exorcism of someone else,
such as the story the Canaanite woman (Matt. 15:22-28).
Principle 5: God remits temporal penalties suffered
by some as a reward to others.
When God blesses one person as a reward to someone else, sometimes
the specific blessing he gives is a reduction of the temporal penalties
to which the first person is subject. For example, Solomon's heart
was led astray from the Lord toward the end of his life, and God promised
to rip the kingdom away from him as a result. "[T]he Lord said
to Solomon: `Since this is what you want, and you have not kept my
covenant and my statues which I enjoined on you, I will deprive you
of the kingdom and give it to your servant. I will not do this during
your lifetime, however, for the sake of your father David; it is your
son whom I will deprive. Nor will I take away the whole kingdom. I
will leave your son one tribe for the sake of my servant David and
of Jerusalem, which I have chosen" (1 Kgs. 11:11-13). God lessened
the temporal punishment in two ways: by deferring the removal of the
kingdom until the days of Solomon's son and by leaving one tribe (Benjamin)
under Judah.
God was clear about why he did this: It is not for Solomon's sake,
but "for the sake of your father David." If David had not
pleased God, and if God had not promised him certain things regarding
his kingdom, God would have removed the entire kingdom from Solomon
and done so during Solomon's lifetime. This is an example of God lessening
a punishment for the sake of one of his saints.
Other examples are easy to think of. God promised Abraham that, if
he could find a certain number of righteous men in Sodom, he was willing
to defer the city's temporal (and eternal) destruction for the sake
of the righteous (Gen. 18:16-33).
Paul noted, "As regards the gospel they [the Jews] are enemies
of God, for your sake; but as regards election they are beloved for
the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the call of God are
irrevocable" (Rom. 11:28-29). Paul indicated that his Jewish
contemporaries were treated more gently than they otherwise would
have been treated (God's gift and call were not removed from them)
because their forefathers were beloved by God, who gave them irrevocable
gifts (which are listed in Rom. 9:4-5).
Principle 6: God remits temporal punishments
through the Church.
God uses the Church when he removes temporal penalties. This is the
essence of the doctrine of indulgences. Earlier we defined indulgences
as "what we receive when the Church lessens the temporal penalties
to which we may be subject even though our sins have been forgiven."
The members of the Church became aware of this principle through the
sacrament of penance. From the beginning, acts of penance were assigned
as part of the sacrament because the Church recognized that Christians
must deal with temporal penalties, such as God's discipline and the
need to compensate those our sins have injured.
In the early Church penances were sometimes severe. For serious sins,
such as apostasy, murder, and abortion, the penances could stretch
over years, but the Church recognized that repentant sinners could
shorten their penances by pleasing God through pious or charitable
acts that expressed sorrow over and a desire to make up for one's
sin.
The Church also recognized the duration of temporal punishments could
be lessened through the involvement of other persons who had pleased
God (principle 5). Sometimes a confessor [Here confessors are not
priests who hear confessions but those who confessed the Christian
faith before the state during a persecution. Confessors, like marytrs,
pleased God in a special way by holding to their faith at the risk
of their lives.] or someone soon to be martyred would intervene and
ask, as a reward to the confessor or martyr, that the penitent have
his time of discipline lessened. This was how the Church recognized
its role of administrating temporal penalties (principle 6); the role
was simply part of the ministry of forgiveness God had given the Church
in general.
Scripture tells us God gave the authority to forgive sins "to
men" (Matt. 9:8) and to Christ's ministers in particular. Jesus
told them, "As the Father has sent me, even so I send you. .
. . Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they
are forgiven; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained"
(John 20:21-23).
If Christ gave his ministers the ability to forgive the eternal penalty
of sin, how much more would they be able to remit the temporal penalties
of sin! [This kind of argument, with the form "If X is the
case then how much more likely is Y the case," is called an a
fortiori argument. A fortiori arguments were favorites
of Jesus and Paul; see Matthew 7:11, 10:25, 12:12, Luke 11:13, 12:24,
28, Romans 11:12, 24, 1 Corinthians 6:3, and Hebrews 9:14]. Christ
also promised his Church the power to bind and loose on earth, saying,
"Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound
in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven"
(Matt. 18:18). As the context makes clear, binding and loosing cover
Church discipline, and Church discipline involves administering and
removing temporal penalties (such as barring from and readmitting
to the sacraments). Therefore, the power of binding and loosing includes
the administration of temporal penalties.
Principle 7: God blesses dead Christians as a
reward to living Christians.
From the beginning the Church recognized the validity of praying for
the dead so that their transition into heaven (via purgatory) might
be swift and smooth. This meant praying for the lessening or removal
of temporal penalties holding them back from the full glory of heaven.
If it is reasonable to ask that these penalties be removed in general,
then it would be reasonable to ask that they be removed in a particular
case as a reward. A widower could pray to God and ask that, if he
has pleased God, his wife's transition into glory be hastened. For
this reason the Church teaches that "indulgences can always be
applied to the dead by way of prayer." [Indulgentarium
Doctrina 3].
A close parallel to this application is 2 Maccabees. Judah Maccabee
finds the bodies of soldiers who died wearing superstitious amulets
during one of the Lord's battles. Judah and his men "turned to
prayer, beseeching that the sin which had been committed might be
wholly blotted out" (2 Macc. 12:42). The reference to the sin
being "wholly blotted out" refers to its temporal penalties.
The author of 2 Maccabees tells us that for these men Judah "was
looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall
asleep in godliness" (v. 45); he believed that these men fell
asleep in godliness, which would not have been the case if they were
in mortal sin. If they were not in mortal sin, then they would not
have eternal penalties to suffer, and thus the complete blotting out
of their sin must refer to temporal penalties for their superstitious
actions. Judah "took up a collection, man by man, to the amount
of two thousand drachmas of silver and sent it to Jerusalem to provide
for a sin offering. In doing this . . . he made atonement for the
dead, that they might be delivered from their sin" (vv. 43, 45).
Judah not only prayed for the dead, but he provided for them the then-appropriate
ecclesial action for lessening temporal penalties: a sin offering.[The
Old Testament sin sacrifices dealt only with the temporal expiation
of sins, "for it is impossible that the blood of bulls and goats
should take away [the eternal punishment for] sins" (Heb. 10:4);
see sidebar on expiation]. Accordingly, we may take the now-appropriate
ecclesial action for lessening temporal penalties--indulgences--and
apply them to the dead by way of prayer.
There is a difference between the way indulgences are obtained by
us in this life and the way in which they are applied to the dead.
The official documents of the Church, such as Pope Paul VI's apostolic
constitution on indulgences, the Code of Canon Law, and The Catechism
of the Catholic Church, all note that indulgences are applied
to the dead by way of prayer.
This is because Christians in the hereafter are no longer under the
earthly Church's jurisdiction. They no longer can receive sacraments,
including penance, and the Church does not have authority to release
their temporal penalties. All it can do is look to God and pray that
he will lessen them. This is a valid form of prayer, as 2 Maccabees
indicates. We may have confidence that God will apply indulgences
to the dead in some way, but the precise manner and degree of application
are unknown.[This is one reason the Church cannot simply "empty
purgatory," as Martin Luther suggested it should. Because it
lacks jurisdiction, the Church can only pray for purgatory
to be emptied, and it does].
These seven principles, which we have seen to be thoroughly biblical,
are the underpinnings of indulgences, but there are still questions
to be asked:
Who are the parties involved?
There are four parties: The first pleased God and moved him to issue
a reward, providing the basis for the indulgence; the second requests
the indulgence and obtains it by performing the act prescribed for
it; the third issues the indulgence (this is God working through the
Church); and the fourth receives the benefit of the indulgence by
having his temporal penalties lessened. [Some parties may be one
and the same person. The person who provides the basis for an indulgence
may request one and apply it to another; the person who requests an
indulgence may ask it for himself or someone else. The only limit
is that under current canon law one may not obtain an indulgence for
another living person (although it is possible to do so in principle,
as the case of the early penitents shows)].
How many of one's temporal penalties can be remitted?
Potentially, all of them. The Church recognizes that Christ and the
saints are interested in helping penitents deal with the aftermath
of their sins, as indicated by the fact they always pray for us (Heb.
7:25, Rev. 5:8). Fulfilling its role in the administration of temporal
penalties, the Church draws upon the rich supply of rewards God chose
to bestow on the saints, who pleased him, and on his Son, who pleased
him most of all. [These rewards are referred to metaphorically as
"the treasury of merits." A merit is anything that pleases
God and moves him to issue a reward, not things that earn "payment"
from God. Humans can't earn anything from God, though by his grace
they can please him in a way he chooses to reward. Picturing the saints'
acts under a single, collective metaphor (such as a treasury) is biblical:
"It was granted her [the Bride] to be clothed with fine linen,
bright and pure" (Rev. 19:8). John tells us, "[F]or the
fine linen is the righteous deeds of the saints." Here the righteous
deeds of the saints are pictured under the collective metaphor of
clothing on the Bride of Christ, the Church. Jewish theology also
recognizes a treasury of merits. Jewish theologians speak of "the
merits of the fathers"--the idea being that the patriarchs
pleased God and inherited certain promises as a reward. God fulfills
these promises and ends up treating later Jews more gently than they
would have been treated. The idea of "the merits of the fathers"
is essentially the same as the Catholic concept of the "treasury
of merits." Both postulate a class of individuals, the Old Testament
patriarchs on the one hand and Christ and the saints on the other,
who have pleased God and whom God chooses to reward in a way involving
lesser temporal punishments on others].
The rewards on which the Church draws are infinite because Christ
is God, so the rewards he accrued are infinite and never can be exhausted.
His rewards alone, apart from the saints', could remove all temporal
penalties from everyone, everywhere. The rewards of the saints are
added to Christ's--not because anything is lacking in his, but
because it is fitting that they be united with his rewards as the
saints are united with him. Although immense, their rewards are finite,
but his are infinite.
"If the Church has the resources to wipe
out everyone's temporal penalties, why doesn't it do so?"
Because God does not wish this to be done. God himself instituted
the pattern of temporal penalties being left behind. They fulfill
valid functions, one of them disciplinary. If a child were never disciplined
he would never learn obedience. God disciplines us as his children--"the
Lord disciplines him whom he loves, and chastises every son whom he
receives" (Heb. 12:6)--so some temporal penalties must remain.
The Church cannot wipe out, with a stroke of the pen, so to speak,
everyone's temporal punishments because their remission depends on
the dispositions of the persons who suffer those temporal punishments.
Just as repentance and faith are needed for the remission of eternal
penalties, so they are needed for the remission of temporal penalties.
Pope Paul VI stated, "Indulgences cannot be gained without a
sincere conversion of outlook and unity with God." [Indulgentarium
Doctrina 11]. We might say that the degree of remission depends
on how well the penitent has learned his lesson.
How does one determine by what amount penalties
have been lessened?
Before Vatican II each indulgence was said to remove a certain number
of "days" from one's discipline--for instance, an act
might gain "300 days' indulgence"--but the use of the
term "days" confused people, giving them the mistaken impression
that in purgatory time still exists and that we can calculate our
"good time" in a mechanical way. The number of days associated
with indulgences actually never meant that that much "time"
would be taken off one's stay in purgatory. Instead, it meant that
an indefinite but partial (not complete) amount of remission would
be granted, proportionate to what ancient Christians would have received
for performing that many days' pious deeds. So, someone gaining 300
days' indulgence gained roughly what an early Christian would have
gained by, say, reciting a particular prayer on arising for 300 days.
To overcome the confusion Paul VI issued a revision of the handbook
(Enchiridion is the formal name) of indulgences. Today numbers
of days are not associated with indulgences, which are either plenary
or partial. [A plenary indulgence--difficult to obtain, because
requiring perfect love for God and complete sorrow for sins--remits
all temporal punishment due for sins; a partial indulgence remits
only part of that punishment, with the exact amount being left indeterminate].
Only God knows exactly how efficacious any particular partial indulgence
is or whether a plenary indulgence was received at all. The new system
of reckoning leaves exact amounts to God and involves the Church in
only general principles.
"Don't indulgences duplicate or even negate
the work of Christ?"
Despite the biblical underpinnings of indulgences, some are sharply
critical of them and insist the doctrine supplants the work of Christ
and turns us into our own saviors. This objection results from confusion
about the nature of indulgences and about how Christ's work is applied
to us.
Indulgences apply only to temporal penalties, not to eternal ones.
The Bible indicates that these penalties may remain after a sin has
been forgiven and that God lessens these penalties as rewards to those
who have pleased him. Since the Bible indicates this, Christ's work
cannot be said to have been supplanted by indulgences.
The merits of Christ, since they are infinite, comprise most of those
in the treasury of merits. By applying these to believers, the Church
acts as Christ's servant in the application of what he has done for
us, and we know from Scripture that Christ's work is applied to us
over time and not in one big lump (Phil. 2:12, 1 Pet. 1:9).
"But what about the merits of the saints--by the doctrine
of indulgences aren't the saints made co-saviors with Christ?"
Not at all. At best they would only be saving us from temporal calamities,
which any human may do (and should do!) for another without blaspheming
Christ. [For example, it does not offend Christ for a fireman to
pull a child out of a burning building. The idea of one human saving
another from temporal misfortune does not besmirch Christ]. Besides,
the saints have the ability to please God because the love of God
has been put in their hearts (Rom. 5:5). It is God's grace that enables
them to please to him. His grace produces all their good actions,
and his grace is given to them because of what Christ did. The good
actions of the saints therefore are produced by Christ working through
them, which means Christ is the ultimate cause of even this temporal
"salvation."
"Should we be talking along these lines? Isn't it better
to put all of the emphasis on what Christ alone?"
No. If we ignore the fact of indulgences, we neglect
what Christ does through us, and we fail to recognize
the value of what he has done in us. Paul used this
very sort of language: "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your
sake, and in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ's afflictions
for the sake of his body, that is, the church" (Col. 1:24).
Even though Christ's sufferings were superabundant (far more than
needed to pay for anything), Paul spoke of completing
what was "lacking" in Christ's sufferings. (As put by Augustine,
"The God who created you without your cooperation will not save
you without your cooperation.") If this mode of speech was permissible
for Paul, it is permissible for us, even though the Catholic language
about indulgences is far less shocking than was Paul's language about
his own role in salvation.
Catholics should not be defensive about indulgences. They are based
on principles straight from the Bible, and we can be confident not
only that indulgences exist, but that they are useful and worth obtaining.
Pope Paul VI declared, "[T]he Church invites all its children
to think over and weigh up in their minds as well as they can how
the use of indulgences benefits their lives and all Christian society.
. . . Supported by these truths, holy Mother Church again recommends
the practice of indulgences to the faithful. It has been very dear
to Christian people for many centuries as well as in our own day.
Experience proves this." [Indulgentarium Doctrina,
9, 11].
James Akin is a contributing editor to This Rock.
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