Well, Not sure that is what was said. You may interpret it that way but that was never the way Indulgences were done. There were abuses of them but Indulgences are only theologically valid done after the Sacrament of Confession. Indulgences would require some form of penance but yes there were priests asking for money to be donated to the Church as part of indulgences, and who knows what was being done.
Furthermore, Indulgences had nothing to do with heaven, Contrition in the Sacrament of Confession related to that. Indulgences related to temporal punishment. So lets say you lied about some persons character in serious mannner, i.e false witness, that person passes on and you can’t make amends in this life to restore his name. You confess the sin, thus it is forgiven but the temporal consequences of that sin remains with respect to that persons name and his family. Indulgences would be part of the penance that would be only connected to temporal punishments which if not remitted here, purgatory would be the cleansing fire that results. Now, I know you don’t accept Purgatory or indulgences but indulgences are related to temporary punishments remitted and purgatory, not buying your way into heaven. That is not a correct characterization.
So yes I know you reject both of them, but at least if you are going to talk about Catholic theology, lets first understand what it is and what it is not.
I read plenty about it and know that Catholics can be scared into paying indulgences believing they can earn their way to heaven. That is so sad because scriptures clearly say that salvation is a gift of God and there is nothing we need to do to earn it. Don’t make it hard. If you believe there is such a place as purgatory how does one get out? Your answer has to contain some kid of work but that is clearly unscriptural.