Joined in 2023 
82 
63 About this deal
Protestant Christians view indulgences as neither biblical nor theologically defensible – in their view, only God can directly forgive sins. Marshall, Peter (October 2017). 1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation. Oxford University Press. p. 61. ISBN 9780199682010. The faithful must cooperate with God’s freely given help, or grace, to heal the stain of sin. Still, according to Augustine and the church, regardless of effort, they are likely to sin again.
Freely giving open witness to one's faith before others in particular circumstances of everyday life. [17] According to the 1968 Enchiridion of Indulgences, a partial indulgence is granted from the following actions: [28]The temporal punishment that follows sin is thus undergone either during life on earth or in purgatory. In this life, as well as by patient acceptance of sufferings and trials, the necessary cleansing from attachment to creatures may, at least in part, be achieved by turning to God in prayer and penance and by works of mercy and charity. [9] Indulgences (from the Latin verb 'indulgere', meaning "to forgive", "to be lenient toward") [12] are a help towards achieving this purification. Terror over the fate of the dead stemmed from the church’s long-standing belief that if punishment for sin is not completed in this life, it continues after death when the soul departs for a spiritual place called purgatory. The soul must fully satisfy the punishment required by God’s justice before it can leave purgatory, come before God and enter heaven. The church has never claimed it could exercise authority over purgatory, the realm of God, to reduce punishment, but unscrupulous priests claimed indulgences could help the dead. The current practice of seeking indulgences The case was very different with indulgences for the dead. As regards these there is no doubt that Tetzel did, according to what he considered his authoritative instructions, proclaim as Christian doctrine that nothing but an offering of money was required to gain the indulgence for the dead, without there being any question of contrition or confession.
Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, Normae de indulgentiis, nn. 6-10, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 4th edition, 2004, pp. 22-23. ISBN 88-209-2785-3 The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but the temporal punishment of sin remains. An example of this can be seen in 2 Samuel 12, when, after David repents of his sin, the prophet Nathan tells him that he is forgiven, but, "Thus says the Lord God of Israel:...Now, therefore, the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah to be your wife." [11] Peters, Edward. A Modern Guide to Indulgences: Rediscovering This Often Misinterpreted Teaching, Hillenbrand Books, Mundelein, Illinois, 2008. ISBN 978-1-59525-024-7 In modern times, the idea of indulgences has occasionally been used by the Catholic Church, but only as a reward for certain pious acts, and not as a full pardon for sins. Catholic teaching states that when a person sins, they acquire the liability of guilt and the liability of punishment. [9] A mortal sin (one that is grave or serious in nature and is committed knowingly and freely) is considered to be an active refusal of communion with God, and to separate a person from him to the end of suffering the eternal death of hell as an effect of this rejection, a consequence known as the " eternal punishment" of sin. The Sacrament of Penance removes this guilt and the liability of eternal punishment related to mortal sin. [10]According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, "The 'treasury of the Church' is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father. ... In Christ, the Redeemer himself, the satisfactions and merits of his Redemption exist and find their efficacy. ...This treasury includes as well the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary. They are truly immense, unfathomable, and even pristine in their value before God. In the treasury, too, are the prayers and good works of all the saints, all those who have followed in the footsteps of Christ the Lord and by his grace have made their lives holy and carried out the mission in the unity of the Mystical Body." [2] During the crusades, the Pope promised "full indulgence" to those who volunteered to fight the Muslims. This meant that if they became soldiers in the Pope's army and died, they would go to heaven even if they had done evil things. On 31 October 1522 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenburg, protesting at the abusive sale of indulgence to fund the building of the new basilica of St. Peter’s at the Vatican. Many Catholics assume that the practice of indulgences ceased, if not then, at least by the time of the Second Vatican Council. Yet in 1967 Bl. Pope Paul VI issued an Apostolic Constitution ‘to give greater dignity and esteem to the use of indulgences’. Norms were issued the following year. The church teaches that even when a person has been ritually forgiven, God’s justice still requires some punishment to purge the sin – at the very least, suffering and miseries on Earth. Moreover, the church teaches, these hardships are to be welcomed because they purify the soul and heal the stain of original sin. People also wondered whether they could gain an indulgence for someone who had died and was presumed to be in purgatory. If so, in acting out of charity for someone else, were they then obliged to confess their own sins, as they would if they sought to obtain an indulgence for themselves? Although these concerns were surfacing as early as the 13th century, it was only in 1476 that Pope Sixtus IV declared that one could indeed gain an indulgence for someone in purgatory. Sixtus, however, left unanswered the problem of the necessity of personal confession. This profound uncertainty surrounding penance threatened to sever completely the nexus between the confession of sin and the achievement of salvation.
For the sacrament to be effective, Catholics must feel true sorrow for their sins (contrition), admit their sins to a priest (confession) and promise to perform works of charity and seek sincere inner change (penance). Works of charity, chosen by the confessor priest, may include saying the Lord’s Prayer, saying a prayer to the Virgin Mary, and reciting the Nicene Creed, a fourth-century statement of Christian faith. These devotions are intended to turn the believer’s heart toward God. Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem Dositheos Notaras (1641–1707) wrote: "It is an established custom and ancient tradition, known to all, that the Most Holy Patriarchs give the absolution certificate ( συγχωροχάρτιον – synchorochartion) to the faithful people ... they have granted them from the beginning and still do." [64] reciting the Apostles' Creed, Nicene Creed, Lauds or Vespers of the Office of the Dead, Psalm 50, Psalm 129, Magnificat, or Memorare (Remember O Most gracious Virgin Mary) Thesis 55 of Tetzel's One Hundred and Six Theses. These "Anti-theses" were a reply to Luther’s Ninety-five Theses and were drawn up by Tetzel’s friend and former professor, Konrad Wimpina. Theses 55 & 56 (responding to Luther's 27th Theses) read: "For a soul to fly out, is for it to obtain the vision of God, which can be hindered by no interruption, therefore he errs who says that the soul cannot fly out before the coin can jingle in the bottom of the chest." In, The reformation in Germany, Henry Clay Vedder, 1914, Macmillan Company, p. 405. Books.google.com Animam purgatam evolare, est eam visione dei potiri, quod nulla potest intercapedine impediri. Quisquis ergo dicit, non citius posse animam volare, quam in fundo cistae denarius possit tinnire, errat. In: D. Martini Lutheri, Opera Latina: Varii Argumenti, 1865, Henricus Schmidt, ed., Heyder and Zimmer, Frankfurt am Main& Erlangen, vol. 1, p. 300. (Reprinted: Nabu Press, 2010, ISBN 1-142-40551-6 ISBN 9781142405519). Books.google.com See also: Catholic Encyclopedia: Johann Tetzel The substitution of easier works, however, does not meet God’s just demand for punishment of sin, according to the church. When an indulgence is granted, the pope satisfies the unmet demand for punishment by drawing from the church’s so-called treasury of merits. The merits in this treasury are believed to be infinite because they include the merits offered by Christ through his redemptive work on the cross as well as merits earned by the Virgin Mary and the saints.A fundamental doctrine of the Catholic Church is that all human beings are born with the stain of original sin as a result of Adam and Eve’s defiance of God in the Garden of Eden. This view, advanced by St. Augustine of Hippo in the third century, is one of the oldest teachings of the church. Because of original sin, no one, Augustine argued, can avoid sin without the assistance of God. Theologians looked to God's mercy, the value of the church's prayers, and the merits of the saints as the basis on which indulgences could be granted. Around 1230 the Dominican Hugh of St-Cher proposed the idea of a "treasury" at the church's disposal, consisting of the infinite merits of Christ and the immeasurable abundance of the saints' merits, a thesis that was demonstrated by great scholastics such as Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas and remains the basis for the theological explanation of indulgences. [40] A reflection on mercy. While in no way precluding other reflections on mercy, this condition may be satisfied by praying the Collect for Divine Mercy Sunday: To sin, Pope Paul VI wrote, is to transgress the moral law and show “contempt for or disregard … the friendship between God and man.” Since sin is understood as rejecting God’s love, it deserves infinite separation from God after death: in other words, banishment to hell. Forgiveness and reconciliation with God
Great Deal 
New Comment 