Indulgences

An indulgence is the remission, in whole or in part, ofthe temporal punishment due to sin. The Church draws from her spiritual treasury (which consists of the inexhaustible meriting of Christ and the superabundant merits which the saints gained through Christ) to pay the temporal debt of sin, which, otherwise, the sinner would have to pay by trials and sufferings in this life orin purgatory. For the performing of certain designated good works,or the reciting of assigned prayers, the Church, in her power of loosing and binding, releases the well-disposed person from the temporal punishment due to his sins-and this, completely or partially. This is called “granting an indulgence.”

The Church has at her disposal the limitless spiritual treasure of Christ’s merits, to which are added thesuperabundant merits of Mary and the saints, and therefore she has unlimited means for cancelling the debt of temporal punishment dueto human sins. If the indulgence be authoritatively proclaimed, and if the person seeking to obtain it is in the state of grace and has true piety as his motive, the indulgence can be perfectly gained.

Indulgences are sometimes attached by the Church to there citing of certain prayers, sometimes to the performing of good deeds, such as almsgiving, or the making of pious pilgrimages.