Indulgences

Devotions

The Church’s teaching on the remission of temporal punishment due to sin — a much-misunderstood practice with real, well-defined conditions attached.

An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment still owed for sins already forgiven in confession, granted through the Church’s ministry and applied either to oneself or to a soul in purgatory. It is never a payment, a purchase, or a guarantee that bypasses genuine repentance and conversion of heart.

Quick Facts

  • Category: Foundation & Doctrine — a reference page, not a devotion itself
  • Types: plenary (full) and partial
  • Granting authority: the Apostolic See, or those it authorizes
  • Catechism reference: CCC §§1471–1479
  • Common requirement: sacramental confession, Holy Communion, prayer for the pope’s intentions, and detachment from sin

What Is an Indulgence?

An indulgence is the remission, granted by the Church, of the temporal punishment still due for sins that have already been forgiven. Catholic teaching holds that even after guilt is forgiven in confession, some purification often remains to be worked out, either in this life or in purgatory. An indulgence draws on what the Catechism calls the Church’s treasury — the infinite merits of Christ together with the prayers and good works of Mary and the saints — and applies them to remit that remaining temporal punishment (CCC §§1471–1479). See our Catechism explainer on indulgences for the shorter, plain-language version of this teaching.

Plenary and Partial Indulgences

An indulgence is either plenary, remitting all temporal punishment due for sin at that time, or partial, remitting only part of it. Gaining a plenary indulgence has always carried real conditions: sacramental confession, reception of Holy Communion, prayer for the pope’s intentions, and — the condition most often overlooked — complete detachment from even venial sin, without which the act gains only a partial indulgence. These conditions are not paperwork; they describe an actual interior state of conversion that the indulgenced act is meant to accompany, not replace.

Origin and Reform

Indulgences developed out of the early Church’s practice of reconciling penitents and gradually took the form Catholics would recognize by the Middle Ages. Serious abuses in the sale and promotion of indulgences in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries became one of the flashpoints of the Reformation, and the Council of Trent responded both by reaffirming the doctrine and by strictly forbidding the financial abuses connected with it. In the twentieth century, Pope Paul VI substantially reformed and simplified indulgenced practice, and the Church’s current official list of indulgenced prayers and works is maintained in the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, the Manual of Indulgences. The word indulgence itself can mislead English speakers used to hearing it applied to small pleasures or self-care; in Church usage it has nothing to do with permission to sin and everything to do with the aftermath of sin already forgiven.

Indulgences and the Souls in Purgatory

Because Catholic teaching on purgatory holds that the souls being purified there can no longer merit anything for themselves, the living can still act on their behalf, and applying an indulgence to a deceased person is one of the most traditional ways Catholics do this, especially throughout November and on the November 2 commemoration of All Souls. An indulgence offered this way is always offered by way of intercession or suffrage; the Church teaches that God alone determines whether and how it benefits that particular soul, which is why Catholics are encouraged to keep offering prayer and indulgenced acts for the dead generally rather than treating any single act as a settled, guaranteed transfer.

How Indulgences Work in Practice

  • An indulgence can be applied to oneself or offered on behalf of a deceased person, but never for another living person.
  • Only the Apostolic See can attach a plenary indulgence to a prayer or practice, or authorize a bishop to do so for a particular occasion such as a diocesan pilgrimage or jubilee.
  • Older prayer cards sometimes list specific numbers of days or years “of indulgence,” using pre-reform terminology; current practice simply describes an indulgence as partial or plenary.
  • An indulgence presupposes that the person is already in a state of grace; it cannot forgive mortal sin, which requires sacramental confession.

Common Misconceptions

“Indulgences let you buy your way out of punishment for sin.”

This is exactly the abuse the Church condemned in its own ranks at the Reformation and that the Council of Trent explicitly forbade going forward. A genuine indulgence is never bought, and it presupposes forgiveness already received through confession rather than substituting for it.

“A plenary indulgence guarantees an exact number of years off purgatory.”

That kind of precise accounting reflects older, now-abandoned terminology, not current Church teaching. The Church does not claim to measure purgatory in fixed units of time; since Paul VI’s reform, an indulgence’s effect is described simply as full (plenary) or partial.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I gain an indulgence for someone who is still alive?

No. An indulgence may be applied to oneself or offered for a soul already in purgatory, but Church teaching does not extend it to another living person.

What does “detachment from sin” mean as a condition for a plenary indulgence?

It means the absence of any attachment, even to venial sin, at the moment the indulgenced act is completed; without it, the same act still gains a partial rather than a full indulgence.

Do I need to go to confession every single time I want a plenary indulgence?

A single confession can ordinarily cover more than one plenary indulgence over a reasonable surrounding period, so a separate confession for each individual indulgenced act is not always necessary. Because the precise conditions are set out in the Church’s Manual of Indulgences, it is worth asking a parish priest when in doubt.

Are indulgences still part of Catholic practice today?

Yes. They remain part of ordinary Catholic life, especially connected with Jubilee years, pilgrimages, and prayer for the dead. See Indulgences for the Faithful Departed.

Can I gain a plenary indulgence more than once on the same day?

As a general rule, no — a plenary indulgence is ordinarily limited to one per day, with a specific traditional exception connected to the day of a person’s death. The precise current norms are always worth confirming with a parish priest or the Manual of Indulgences rather than an older, uncertain source.

Sources

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