The Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation is commonly known as 'Confession'. It has four elements: three on the part of the penitent (sinner) which are contrition, confession, and penance and one on the part of the priest (confessor), absolution.
The penitent is sorry for his sins (contrition), he confesses them to the priest and does penance, which is reparation for damages his sins have caused. Penance is a kind of temporal punishment for having committed the sins. This punishment consists of earthly sufferings and/or prayers; in the case of a person who dies before he can do penance, the punishment is the time spent, after death, in purgatory.
To enter heaven, contrition alone is not enough; penance also must be done. In serious cases, absolution will only be given after penance has been completed. Penance can be in the form of prayers, fast, pilgrimages, mass offerings etc. In the case of sins like theft or murder, the penance can also include returning the stolen property or maintaining the murdered man's family.
An indulgence is the remission of a temporal punishment brought about by sin. Indulgences can be applied to oneself or to the soul of a deceased person. This is similar to the situation when a criminal jailed for ten years has his sentence reduced by one year for good behavior - he gets a year of remission of his punishment.
The Catholic Church believes that the living can help those whose purification from their sins is not yet completed not only by praying for them but also by gaining indulgences for them.
In the Catholic tradition, there are two types of indulgences: partial indulgences and plenary indulgences. Partial indulgence (e.g., saying the creed, visiting the cemetery, visiting the blessed sacrament, making the sign of the cross etc.) removes part of one's punishment while plenary indulgences (e.g., going to confession, receiving communion, and saying a prayer for the pope, reading the scripture, saying the rosary etc.) removes all.
Historically, it was Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) who declared that indulgences also applied to souls suffering in purgatory. For example, children of a dead parent can earn indulgences to get him or her released early from purgatory.
The latter part of the middle ages (5th to 15th century) saw the growth of considerable abuse of indulgences. Popes of this period allowed the unrestricted sale of indulgences by professional 'pardoners' sent to collect contributions to projects such as the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Peter Watson, in his book Ideas, has some very interesting details about the abuse of indulgences.
In Rome, there was a special office of the quaestiorarii or pardoners, who had the pope's authority to issue indulgences. One such 'pardoner' was Johann Tetzel, a Dominican priest, who traveled from village to village selling indulgences. Setting himself in the local church, he would declare that he had the 'passports to lead the human souls to the celestial joys of paradise.' The fees were dirt-cheap, he claimed. "As soon as the coin rings in the bowl, the soul for whom it is paid will fly out of purgatory and straight to heaven". He also wrote letters which promised the credulous that a sin a person was intending to commit would be forgiven.
The abuse of indulgences was a primary cause of the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. Martin Luther attacked the theology supporting indulgences. According to Catholic theology, indulgences exist because of the "surplus grace" that are available in the world. Jesus and the saints who came after him did so much good that there is a surplus of grace on earth. Purchase of an indulgence is done from this surplus. To Luther, it was like trading potatoes! Moreover, for him, purchase of an indulgence only freed the buyer from penance for a sin, but not from the sin itself.
Please check my future blogs for more 'inventions' by the Church!
The penitent is sorry for his sins (contrition), he confesses them to the priest and does penance, which is reparation for damages his sins have caused. Penance is a kind of temporal punishment for having committed the sins. This punishment consists of earthly sufferings and/or prayers; in the case of a person who dies before he can do penance, the punishment is the time spent, after death, in purgatory.
To enter heaven, contrition alone is not enough; penance also must be done. In serious cases, absolution will only be given after penance has been completed. Penance can be in the form of prayers, fast, pilgrimages, mass offerings etc. In the case of sins like theft or murder, the penance can also include returning the stolen property or maintaining the murdered man's family.
An indulgence is the remission of a temporal punishment brought about by sin. Indulgences can be applied to oneself or to the soul of a deceased person. This is similar to the situation when a criminal jailed for ten years has his sentence reduced by one year for good behavior - he gets a year of remission of his punishment.
The Catholic Church believes that the living can help those whose purification from their sins is not yet completed not only by praying for them but also by gaining indulgences for them.
In the Catholic tradition, there are two types of indulgences: partial indulgences and plenary indulgences. Partial indulgence (e.g., saying the creed, visiting the cemetery, visiting the blessed sacrament, making the sign of the cross etc.) removes part of one's punishment while plenary indulgences (e.g., going to confession, receiving communion, and saying a prayer for the pope, reading the scripture, saying the rosary etc.) removes all.
Historically, it was Pope Sixtus IV (1471-1484) who declared that indulgences also applied to souls suffering in purgatory. For example, children of a dead parent can earn indulgences to get him or her released early from purgatory.
The latter part of the middle ages (5th to 15th century) saw the growth of considerable abuse of indulgences. Popes of this period allowed the unrestricted sale of indulgences by professional 'pardoners' sent to collect contributions to projects such as the rebuilding of St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. Peter Watson, in his book Ideas, has some very interesting details about the abuse of indulgences.
In Rome, there was a special office of the quaestiorarii or pardoners, who had the pope's authority to issue indulgences. One such 'pardoner' was Johann Tetzel, a Dominican priest, who traveled from village to village selling indulgences. Setting himself in the local church, he would declare that he had the 'passports to lead the human souls to the celestial joys of paradise.' The fees were dirt-cheap, he claimed. "As soon as the coin rings in the bowl, the soul for whom it is paid will fly out of purgatory and straight to heaven". He also wrote letters which promised the credulous that a sin a person was intending to commit would be forgiven.
The abuse of indulgences was a primary cause of the Protestant Reformation in the early 16th century. Martin Luther attacked the theology supporting indulgences. According to Catholic theology, indulgences exist because of the "surplus grace" that are available in the world. Jesus and the saints who came after him did so much good that there is a surplus of grace on earth. Purchase of an indulgence is done from this surplus. To Luther, it was like trading potatoes! Moreover, for him, purchase of an indulgence only freed the buyer from penance for a sin, but not from the sin itself.
Please check my future blogs for more 'inventions' by the Church!
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