Posted on 12/06/2007 7:03:33 AM PST by Alex Murphy
According to the centuries-old rules of the Roman Catholic Church, sin-reduction is a two-step process. Guilt is absolved through confession and prayer, but punishment — on earth or in purgatory — can be avoided through indulgences, an ancient form of church-granted amnesty that critics deride as a shortcut to salvation.
The door for indulgences is not always open, though, and for years after the Vatican Council reforms of the 1960s, they were rarely offered — until 2000, when Pope John Paul II started using them to attract pilgrims to World Youth Day.
Today, Pope Benedict XVI put out the latest offer of indulgences, with two highly-detailed options. The harder way to get one, at least if you don’t live in southwestern France, involves making a pilgrimage to Lourdes, where the faithful believe that the Virgin Mary appeared to a teenage girl 18 times over a five-month span in 1858. The pilgrimage, which must be made in the next year, can be accomplished using Vatican charter flights that began over the summer.
The easier way involves a tighter window of time — just nine days in February — but what will probably be a much shorter trip, to “any church, grotto or decorous place” that displays “the blessed image” of the apparition. (Would a front yard in Staten Island qualify?) In the presence of the image, one must “participate in a pious exercise” to show devotion to the Virgin Mary, the announcement says.
“Or at least pause for an appropriate space of time in prayer and with pious meditations,” it continues.
(The instructions do not specify whether you can bring your own blessed image, or B.Y.O.B.I. A handy “divine sound-activated desk fountain” featuring the holy scene is available
(Excerpt) Read more at thelede.blogs.nytimes.com ...
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Loving the media reaction.....
Your thoughts, please?
That statement is completely false.
Certain specific indulgences are only available at certain times, but there's a long list of acts which are indulgenced, have been for a long time, and are available to any Catholic in a state of grace any time he wishes to make use of them.
Saying the rosary in a group and/or before the Blessed Sacrament is an indulgenced act, for example. That's pretty easy to do.
"Devoutly" reading Sacred Scripture for 30 minutes is worthy of a plenary indulgence. Those bad, bad Catholics -- tacking an indulgence onto Bible study. Who do they think they are?
No wonder Protestants don't believe in Purgatory - according to the rules, we've already gotten ourselves out of it!
It’s the NYT. You expected accuracy?
-Sacramental confession. A single sacramental confession suffices for gaining several plenary indulgences; but Communion must be received and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff must be recited for the gaining of each plenary indulgence.
-Eucharistic Communion.
-Prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff. The condition of praying for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary; nevertheless, each one is free to recite any other prayer according to his piety and devotion.
-It is further required that all attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent. If the latter disposition is in any way less than perfect or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be partial only.
ROTFL - “the devil’s in the details,” as they say!
Beside the exclusion of all attachment to sin, even venial sin, the requirements for gaining a plenary indulgence are the performance of the indulgenced work and fulfillment of three conditions: sacramental confession, eucharistic communion, and prayer for the pope's intentions.
Doesn't fit the paradigm. It will be overlooked in the coming assault.
Is that 30 minutes per day, 30 minutes per sin, 30 minutes for a 4th level sin of the second order? These works get so complicated.
Nonsense. Bible study is so easy, any plowman or milkmaid can do it.
And 30 minutes counts for everything up to that point, if you meet all of the conditions.
Not true. Remember, the Catholic Church teaches that the plowman or milkmaid can understand it w/o the Magisterium telling them what it means.
With those conditions being....?
See post 11.
Not relevant since DM is not a Catholic.
What in the world is that?
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