The following comes from an October 7 Orange County Catholic article by Kimberly Porazzo:
If you follow the protocol of this Jubilee Year of Mercy Plenary Indulgence, you have the rare opportunity to purify your soul. You may obtain “complete remission of all temporal punishment due to sin.” It is a chance to be purified even beyond reconciliation.
I visited Monsignor Doug Cook, rector at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange, to better understand. According to Msgr. Cook, the plenary indulgence “takes care of all past sins of a person’s life.” It goes beyond the graces received during reconciliation.
One of the requirements for this special indulgence is that you pass through a Holy Door. Previously, that required a trip to Rome. This Jubilee year, however, because Pope Francis wanted as many as possible to receive the indulgence, the entrance to each cathedral throughout the world and certain shrines are deemed and blessed as Holy Doors. In the Diocese of Orange, the two Holy Doors designated are located at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange and Mission Basilica in San Juan Capistrano.
The requirements to receive the indulgence are listed here:
• Walk through one of the Holy Doors designated in the area
• Recite the Creed
• Go to confession and receive Holy Communion (within 20 days of each)
• Say the Our Father and the Hail Mary, offering them for the intentions of the Holy Father
• Finally, make a commitment to strive to live a life without sin– what theologians call a “detachment from sin.”
Not only can you purify your own soul, you may do so for a departed loved one.
If Kimberly Porazzo knew even a little about indulgences or had bothered to do a modicum of journalistic research prior to writing her article, she would realize that opportunities to merit plenary indulgences are not “rare”.
Reading Scripture for at least thirty minutes, reciting the rosary in a church or family group, praying the Stations of the Cross, adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for at least thirty minutes: those are some examples of acts that can merit plenary indulgences (presuming all other general requirements have also been satisfied) and can easily be performed by anyone on just about any day.
The article reads like a report by a fifth-grader.
I find this comment unnecessarily critical. Here is a subject matter [indulgences] which sadly not so many Catholics know about. And so the writer has taken an effort to grab the attention of the reader by expressing its “rarity”—whether or not such a description is apt. This is journalistic license, a “grabber” if you will. The readership may think this “rare” as they may or may not be aware of indulgences, but for Sawyer to go on and on—and then belittling the good effort of the writer by saying its akin to the work of a fifth grader—is just unnecessarily critical, uncharitable, ungentlemanly. At least give kudos for enlightening fellow Catholics about this oft-neglected treasury of the Church.
” At least give kudos for enlightening fellow Catholics about this oft-neglected treasury of the Church.”
Please look into the mirror and please practice what you preach. We’ve been waiting for years for YOU to at least give one single scintilla of a “kudo” comment to CCD’s enlightening fellow Catholics about the ‘In the trenches’ pro-life articles, which you ALWAYS neglect. For all of your words about charity, you have been the enabling voice of serial killers as well as the enabling reason why these treasures of knowledge are deliberately hidden. Real charity consistently speaks the full truth. It’s an “intrinsic” issue and hell hath no fury!
For your information Catherine, speaking up about abolishing the death penalty is consistent with being pro-life. If you really honor the truth, obey the Magisterium for it teaches He Who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life: obey its teaching on the cruel and lack of necessity for the death penalty. California Catholics, Vote Yes on 62, No on 66! Support the California Bishops! Respect life!
There is a book called “Manual of Indulgences” Norms and Grants from the Apostolic Penitentiary. It can be found on the USCCB web site.
https://store.usccb.org/SearchResults.asp?Search=Manual+of+Indulgences&Submit=
I find that reading a Catholic Bible (must have imprimatur) at home is one of my favorites.
Agin folks, Sawyer is right and brings up some wonderful opportunities for special
indulgences (or graces). So easy to do another daily rosary at mass. Maybe I should not admit this, but when the sermon is milk toast or I cannot understand the accent of the priest to follow along properly, I turn to the rosary and offer it all up..
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/5088/beware_the_online_culture_of_wrath.aspx
Indulgences are only rare if the priest in an area do not preach about them, or the Catholic bookstores in an area do not have books about them or the people just are not interested in doing them. That is not the case in the Catholic churches I have attended in my part of California. I have done indulgences for most of my life for the Holy Souls and occasionally for myself. It is Catholic teaching that if one prays for the Holy Souls, they in turn pray for us, especially when they get to heaven. I have often sent condolence cards to families informing them that I did a plenary indulgence for their deceased loved one. This article is a good reminder, though, to those who might not know about them and to those of us who have not done them…
Contined: for awhile