Category Archives: Indulgentiarum Doctrina

Chapter 4 concludes with a reminder of where indulgences fall in a hierarchy of practices that can lead the believer to holiness: 11. Therefore Holy Mother Church, supported by these truths, while again recommending to the faithful the practice of … Continue reading →

Certain religious people worry about so-called cheap grace. In The Cost of Discipleship, Dietrich Bonhoeffer defined it well: Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without … Continue reading →

9. The Church also in our days then invites all its (daughters and) sons to ponder and meditate well on how the use of indulgences benefits their lives and indeed all Christian society. Do indulgences really help people? It’s not … Continue reading →

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 … Continue reading →

We begin section 8 with the classic definition of the indulgence: 8. The remission of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven insofar as their guilt is concerned has been called specifically “indulgence.”(Cf. Leo X, Decree Cum postquam: tibi … Continue reading →

Chapter 4, covering sections 7 through 11, is a good attempt at laying groundwork for renewal and reform. It is heavily footnoted from the Medieval Era, and makes a case for continuing the practice, while acknowledging previous errors and the … Continue reading →

It was not believed, however, that the individual faithful by their own merits alone worked for the remission of sins of their brothers, but that the entire Church as a single body united to Christ its Head was bringing about … Continue reading →

Chapter 3 covers a single numbered section and addresses Church teaching on the Communion of Saints, the afterlife, the role of purification, and the intercession for others. Citations, from the West and East and largely from antiquity are cited. We … Continue reading →

Chapter 2 wraps up here: “For all who are in Christ, having his spirit, form one Church and cleave together in him” (Ephesians 4:16). Therefore the union of the wayfarers with the (sisters and brothers) who have gone to sleep … Continue reading →

Chapter 2 concludes with a closer look at Jesus and the Paschal Mystery. It is indeed a graced economy in which the Lord provides for us: 5. Indeed Christ “committed no sin,” “suffered for us,”(Cf. 1 Peter 2:22 and 21) … Continue reading →

Chapter 2 begins with a short numbered paragraph. Here, a positive message of hope. Saint Augustine discerned that holiness can contribute in a community for the benefit of others, just as sin tears away at a group of people–not just … Continue reading →

3. It is therefore necessary for the full remission and—as it is called—reparation of sins not only that friendship with God be reestablished by a sincere conversion of the mind and amends made for the offense against his wisdom and … Continue reading →

As a parent, I leaned more heavily on “natural consequences.” It’s not totally clear how I parted ways from my own childhood experiences of punishment, or that I even did separate too much. Being grounded was a consequence of a … Continue reading →

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION OF POPE PAUL VI INDULGENTIARUM DOCTRINA WHEREBY THE REVISION OF SACRED INDULGENCES IS PROMULGATED I’ve had this document on a back burner for a few weeks now. I thought it prudent to form myself in the practice of … Continue reading →