The aim pursued by ecclesiastical authority in granting indulgences is not only that of helping the faithful to expiate the punishment due sin but also that of urging them to perform works of piety, penitence and charity—particularly those which lead to growth in faith and which favor the common good.(Cf. Paul VI, cited Letter: “Iis vero christifidelibus…precibus adlaborat”)
This begins to answer the question: why indulgences? “Ecclesiastical authority” would like to see people punished less, to suffer less. The establishment of this system presumably encourages good actions. Do these actions influence salvation? That doesn’t seem to be in play here. Instead of a creeping pelagianism, I think there’s an honest desire to reinforce positive habits.
Don’t forget the dead:
And if the faithful offer indulgences in suffrage for the dead, they cultivate charity in an excellent way and while raising their minds to heaven, they bring a wiser order into the things of this world.
I know this is a bugaboo of some significance among some Christians, especially those with an anti-Catholic bent. Praying for people is a good thing, something that most every believer in most any religion would support. Does prayer help the dead? It seems doubtful God would hold it against us as a few people would. We don’t get to behold the desired result of a soul released from purification. Of course, we don’t always get the medical miracle on which we pin our hope.
There’s a long history of popes encouraging intercessory prayer:
The Magisterium of the Church has defended and illustrated this doctrine in various documents. (see below) Unfortunately, the practice of indulgences has at times been improperly used either through “untimely and superfluous indulgences” by which the power of the keys was humiliated and penitential satisfaction weakened,(Cf. Lateran Council IV, ch. 62 (DS 819)) or through the collection of “illicit profits” by which indulgences were blasphemously defamed.(Cf. Council of Trent, Decree On Indulgences (DS 1835))
This acknowledgement was helpful. I think we still struggle today on the exchange of money for ministry. In many parishes, fees for funerals, weddings, faith formation, and so on. In an ideal world, I’d offer it all for free.
But the Church, in deploring and correcting these improper uses “teaches and establishes that the use of indulgences must be preserved because it is supremely salutary for the Christian people and authoritatively approved by the sacred councils; and it condemns with anathema those who maintain the uselessness of indulgences or deny the power of the Church to grant them.”(Cf. Ibid)
Those papal references from the 14th century to the 20th:
- Clement VI, jubilee bull Unigenitus Dei Filius (DS 1026).
- Clement VI, Letter Super quibusdam (DS 1059).
- Martin V, bull inter cunctas (DS 1266).
- Sixtus IV, bull Salvator noster (DS 1398).
- Sixtus IV, Encyclical Romani Pontificis provida: “Nos scandalis…concessimus indulgentiam…” (DS 1405-1406).
- Leo X, bull Exsurge Domine (DS 1467-1472).
- Pius VI, Constitution Auctorem fidei, proposition 40: “Propositio asserens, indulgentiam secundum suam praecisam notionem…in art. 19 Lutheri damnata” (DS 2640). Ibid., proposition 41: “Item in eo…in art. 17 Lutheri damnata” (DS 2641). Ibid., proposition 42: “Item in eo, quod superaddit…in art. 22 Lutheri” (DS 2642).
- Pius XI, Indiction of the extraordinary holy year Quod nuper: “…plenissimam totius…ac venia” (A.A.S. 25, 1933, p. 8).
- Pius XII, Indiction of the universal jubilee Jubilaeum maximum: “Hoc igitur…atque impertimus” (A.A.S. 41, 1949, p. 258-259).
This document is copyright © Dicastero per la Comunicazione – Libreria Editrice Vaticana and can be found on the Vatican site in its entirety.
Catholic Sensibility 