Interestingly, even though anti-Catholics FReepers couldn't figure out they've been punked, CNN has admitted the MSM has been playing their readers to make the Church look bad. Its a sad day when CNN comes off as being more honest than the anti-Catholics at FR:

:July 17th, 2013

Sorry, retweeting the pope won't get you out of hell

By the Rev. James Martin, SJ, special to CNN

(CNN) –Here were the tantalizingly weird headlines: “Follow pope online, get to heaven sooner - Facebook likes don't count.” “Cut your time in purgatory by following pope on Twitter.” And, worst of all, from Slate: “Pope now offering indulgences in exchange for Twitter followers.”

Similar headlines popped up on more than 190 news sources on Wednesday.

Ha ha. Is the Catholic Church offering time off in hell– or purgatory, depending on the website - just for checking your Twitter feed every few hours? Is the church really that dumb? And here I thought Pope Francis was cool, or as Esquire recently termed him, “awesome.”

This is (another) case of how the media misunderstands and misreports a story from “The Vatican.”

Here’s how it seemed to have happened.

On June 24, the Apostolic Penitentiary (the Vatican office that deals with matters concerning sin,) issued a document that said the faithful who attend the upcoming World Youth Day in Brazil would receive a “plenary indulgence” for their efforts during pilgrimage.

That’s a traditional Catholic term for the full remission of the “temporal punishment” in the afterlife due to sin. The theological idea is that by doing good works on earth, or by engaging in pious practices like a pilgrimage, you can help “work off” some of the temporal punishments that may await you after death.

But just from checking Twitter every few hours? Let’s leave aside the very complicated theology of the plenary indulgence for a moment, and see how this story got out of hand.

The Vatican’s original document offered an indulgence for those who complete a pilgrimage. That’s fairly common. A few years ago, when I made a pilgrimage to the French shrine of Lourdes, one could work towards an indulgence by visiting certain holy sites and praying there.

Once again, the idea is making reparation in penance for your sins. To take a homey example, if you’re a student who talks too much in class, your teacher might ask you to clean the blackboards instead of failing you. To avoid a big punishment you make amends for your mistakes.

But there’s more: the Vatican document noted that the faithful at World Youth Day must be “truly repentant and contrite.” In other words, they must undertake the pilgrimage in a true spirit of repentance. Be sorry for their sins. That’s common, too.

At the end of the document, the Vatican noted that it was not just pilgrims to whom this applied, but another, newer, group: those who might participate “with due devotion, via the new means of social communication.”

Why did the Vatican include that category? As I see it, to be inclusive, something people often accuse the church of not being.

For those who cannot travel to Brazil, because of financial limitations or health restrictions, it's a way of welcoming them.

To my mind, it’s a generous way of inviting people into the Masses, prayers and liturgies during the World Youth Day. Why wouldn’t you want to include the sick, the poor and the elderly in the community of pilgrims? And why wouldn’t you want to help them participate via the web?

So how did this get so focused on Twitter?

Well, it would seem that The Guardian got hold of “a source” in the Vatican who said, “That includes following Twitter.”

Now, who was the source? We are not told. But that was enough for the headline writers at the Guardian to write: “Vatican offers `time off purgatory' to followers of Pope Francis tweets.”

That’s already doubly inaccurate. Because, first of all, even the “source” said it’s not enough to just follow the pope on Twitter (as the headline misleadingly stated).

"But you must be following the events live,” he told the Guardian, “It is not as if you can get an indulgence by chatting on the Internet.”

Second, in that same article Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication, was quoted as telling the Italian daily Corriere della Sera: "You can't obtain indulgences like getting a coffee from a vending machine."

In other words: the original document, the “source” and Archbishop Celli all said the opposite of what the headlines said.

That is, it’s not enough simply to follow the pope on Twitter. It’s not even enough to check his Twitter feed frequently. You need to be (a) contrite, (b) trying to follow the events at World Youth Day live and (c) performing these acts with “due devotion.”

In other words, the Vatican is clearly referring to prayerful participation in these events by men and women who could not otherwise go, through the various “new means of social communication.”

An example: A friend of mine was recently diagnosed with a serious form of cancer. After I told her that I would pray for her, I mentioned that the shrine of Lourdes had a 24-hour webcam in the famous Grotto, where Catholics believe the Virgin Mary appeared in 1858.

She e-mailed me a few days later to say that “visiting” the Grotto, via the web, had helped her to pray. It brought her a great sense of peace. This is the kind of “due devotion” that the Vatican has in mind, despite what the headlines might say.

The worst headline came from the normally careful Slate: Pope Francis is not offering indulgences “in exchange for Twitter followers.” He has plenty of Twitter followers. But he’d probably exchange a few hundred of them for headline writers who actually read the story.

Pope says "follow me, listen to what I say" and escape punishment for sins. Jesus forgives --- but he still punishes. Unless you follow a pope and hang on his every word. Then Jesus punishes less, for that which He has already forgiven.

Theologians have been working on the " very complicated theology of the plenary indulgence" for 2 thousand years you say? It appears they still are. Making it complicated...

Yes, for many long years they have corrupted the word of God by their traditions. Perhaps too many of them, did not well enough understand? Or those whom did, were shunted aside by those whom with the powers of their own minds and imaginations, created lens of reasoning and temporal law (even "tradition") through which revelation was to be viewed. Interestingly enough, they went so far as to kill, to murder those whom disagreed with the idea of themselves having actual and true spiritual "authority" with scarcely any limit --- over all others upon the earth. Just ask Jan Huss, or any of the other persons murdered by papists in the name of the RCC.

The truth is -- we can receive forgiveness of our sins. Yet the results of sin, the "fruit" of them, can have it's effects, in this world.

All the "doing penance" in the world, cannot stop it, any more than a bullet once fired can be unfired.

Penance itself is an unfortunate corruption of what was actually taught from the beginning. Did John the Baptist say "do penance"? Or did he say more simply, "repent"? Did Jesus ever say that one must "do penance", or did He say "repent".

There are differing connotative meanings to those two concepts, but unfortunately, they have become, with the help of the "theologians" you speak of, horribly mixed up.

This --- could have been written by any number of "protestant" pastors. Go ahead, tell me it's a "catholic" idea. I will agree to that, in the small case "c".

This other stuff, all the complications of various levels of "indulgence", is distraction from the simplicity of the Gospel message.

You seem to otherwise be able to pick up on the hoped for results. Yet the leadership of the RCC apparently wishes to continue having things both ways --- to continue in the prideful error of holding themselves forth as sole gate-keepers to Christ, not only encouraging dependency upon themselves, but retaining the packaging that sells the idea that grace itself flows through their offices. It may well (but not only there) and for many who can find it and be blessed by it, then all is well enough, perhaps. I do not wish to discourage anyone from Christ.

Yet as I have pointed out many times before --- Newman miscounted the "acorns". (there was no singular "pope" from the beginning!)

By which I also mean, the RCC priesthood does not and did not have granted to itself some sort of monopoly, some sole charter. Just ask the Orthodox (whom in past times, they too have been declared "heretics", and schismatics, with anathema poured upon their heads).

From the very beginnings, there were seven buds, seven lamps. Not "one". Don't believe me? Read Exodus again. Study the layout and furniture of the Tabernacle. All was there, each principle, each truth. To that, should be added no thing, nor anything taken away, ignored.

The Lord revealed truth to them, holding nothing back -- even as it was presented to them (the Jews) from behind a veil.

Ezekiel added no thing "new" which was not there also from the very beginning (just as Christ was in the heart of the Father, from the beginning), yet he was shown...this;

47 The man brought me back to the entrance to the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. 2 He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was trickling from the south side.
3 As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits[a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. 4 He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. 5 He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross.

And the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations...