Year of Jubilee

Pope Francis has announced an indulgence is available to the faithful during the jubilee year. The indulgence, he explained, would be “a way of discovering the unlimited nature of God’s mercy.” A plenary indulgence is a grace granted by the Catholic Church through the merits of Jesus Christ to remove the temporal punishment due to sin.

• The conditions necessary for a Jubilee indulgence include:
   
  • Being in a state of grace and disposed to receive the indulgence
  • Having confessed one’s sins sacramentally
  • Receiving Holy Communion
  • Offering prayers for the Holy Father and his intentions
  • If able, make a pilgrimage to a designated Jubilee pilgrim site, such as the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart or St. Mary Cathedral Basilica in Galveston

Indulgences are a sharing in the treasury of the merits of Christ and the Saints, which the Church applies to the remission of the temporal guilt of sin, whose eternal guilt has already been forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation (by the merits of Christ’s Passion, Death and Resurrection).

Even forgiven sins can still have temporal guilt that requires reparation to justice. If not satisfied in life, it will need to be satisfied in Purgatory (Mt. 5:25-26). The Church, therefore, speaks of indulgences as an effect of the tribunal of mercy, the Sacrament of Penance (CCC 1471). An indulgence is a mercy given by Christ through the Church when we do certain acts of prayer, penance, or charity specified by the Church. Besides the intrinsic value of the act before God in remitting temporal guilt, the Church attaches an additional value through the power of the keys given to St. Peter (Mt. 16:13-18).

A Catholic may gain an indulgence for his or herself or for the Poor Souls, but not for another living person—whose will alone determines their receptivity to God’s mercy.

Source: EWTN