The article by Prof. Antonio Donato CSsR, published on the Blog of the Alfonsiana Academy in the series on the keywords of the Jubilee 2025
Among the key words that characterize the Jubilee as a strong moment in the life of the Church and as a social event, there is certainly indulgence: “one of the various forms through which the grace of forgiveness” continues to pour out “in abundance upon the holy faithful People of God” (cf. Spes non confundit, n. 5). Living it allows, in fact, “to discover how limitless the mercy of God is”, and “it is no coincidence – as Pope Francis highlights in the Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 – that in ancient times the term “mercy” was interchangeable with that of “indulgence”, precisely because it intends to express the fullness of God’s forgiveness that knows no bounds” (cf. Ibid., n. 23).
We like to think – and we find confirmation of this in the initial passages of the provisions issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary for obtaining plenary indulgence in the Holy Year 2025 – that even before being “given” as a “practice”, indulgence must be “understood” and “experienced” as a “gift of grace”. Hence the commitment, we could say pastoral, as well as moral, to “encourage the souls of the faithful to desire and nourish the pious desire to obtain indulgence” as a “unique gift, obtained by virtue of the mediation of the Church” (cf. Norms on the Granting of Jubilee Indulgences ) which, by virtue of the power to bind in order to loose, intervenes in favor of the faithful in Christ, opening up to them the treasure of the merits of the Son of God and of the saints so that they may obtain from the merciful Father the remission of temporal punishment, a consequence, alongside eternal punishment, of sin (cf. CCC, n. 1478).
If understood in its proper context, that is, the Sacrament of Penance and Reconciliation (cf. CCC, nn. 1471-1479), it appears evident to us that indulgence is also to be understood, alongside others, as a “means” of personal and community sanctification on the path of Christian life, “which also needs – as Francis underlines – strong moments to nourish and strengthen hope, an irreplaceable companion that allows us to glimpse the goal: the encounter with the Lord Jesus” ( Spes non confundit , n. 5). It seems to us then that the pious desire to obtain the indulgence, mentioned above, finds its founding root and driving force in the highest desire for perfection and sanctity which on the one hand, as Alfonso M. de Liguori (1696-1787) writes in the Practice of Loving Jesus Christ , «gives the strength to walk» and «on the other hand lightens the pain of the journey» (cf. chap. VIII, n. 9). For this reason, de Liguori highlights again, “he who truly desires perfection never stops moving forward in it; and if he does not stop, he will finally arrive there. On the other hand, he who does not desire it will always go backwards, and will always find himself more imperfect than before” ( Ibid. ). “Therefore, when we have good desires, we must take courage and, trusting in God, try to put them into practice” ( Ibid ., chap. VIII, n. 11) because “God is immensely good to those who seek him with all their heart. Nor can the sins we have committed prevent us from becoming saints, if we truly desire to become saints” (Ibid.).
This light allows us, in our modest opinion, to “return” to the heart of the Jubilee indulgence – as a (return) step to (re)discover the unlimited and unconditional mercy of God who always calls (cf. Spes non confundit, n. 23) – and to “recognize” the value meaning inscribed in what in “practice” is indicated as necessary for its obtaining, that is, “beyond the exclusion of any affection for sin, even venial”, the commitment to “perform the indulgenced work and fulfill three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion and prayer according to the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff” (cf. Enchiridion Indulgetiarum, norm n. 20, §1).
These provisions and conditions can be “simply fulfilled”, and this does not exclude the possible granting of a partial indulgence only (cf. norms, n. 7), or, as Pope Paul VI clarifies, “fully lived” in the perspective of a «healthy use of indulgences» which «just to recall the most important things, teaches in the first place how “sad and bitter it is to have abandoned the Lord God”» and also says «how intimately we are united in Christ with one another and how much the supernatural life of each one can benefit others, so that these too can be more easily and more intimately united to the Father. Therefore the use of indulgences effectively excites to charity and makes it exercised in an eminent way, when help is offered to the brothers who sleep in Christ» (Indulgentiarum doctrina, n. 9). The Holy Pope always clarifies that the aim and task of the Church “in granting indulgences is not only to help the faithful to pay the penalty of sin, but also to encourage them to perform works of piety, penance and charity, especially those which contribute to the growth of faith and the common good. If the faithful offer indulgences in suffrage for the deceased, they cultivate charity in an excellent way and, while raising their minds to heaven, they order earthly things more wisely” (Ibid., n. 8).
…to the theologian-pastor, the commitment to translate into today this wealth of personal and community meaning-value of the reality of indulgence…
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Reference and further reading bibliography.
Magisterium
Paul VI, Indulgentiarum doctrina, Constitutio apostolica Sacrarum Indulgentiarum recognitio promulgatur (1.1.1967), in AAS 59/1 (1967) 5-24.
John Paul II, «Incarnationis Mysterium, Apostolic Bull for the Indiction of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000 », (29.11.1988), in Insegnamenti di Giovanni Paolo II, XXI/2 (1998), LEV, Vatican City 2000.
Francis, Misericordiae vultus, Bull of Indiction of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy (11.04.2015), in AAS 107/5 (2015) 399-420.
–––, Spes non confundit, Bull of Indiction of the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 (9.05.2024), LEV, Vatican City 2024.
Apostolic Penitentiary, Manual of Indulgences. Norms and concessions, LEV, Vatican City 19994.
–––, «Norms for Granting Indulgences during the Ordinary Jubilee of the Year 2025 proclaimed by His Holiness Pope Francis», (13.05.2024) in Dicastery for Evangelization. Section for Fundamental Questions of Evangelization in the World (ed.), Jubilee 2025. Liturgical Texts. Norms for Granting Jubilee Indulgences, Vatican Press, Vatican City 2024; cf. https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico /2024/05/13/0392/00808.html#ita [accessed: 6.10.2024].
Catechism of the Catholic Church, LEV, Vatican City 2017.
The Code of Canon Law. Juridical-pastoral commentary, ed. L. Chiappetta, Dehoniane, Rome 19962.
Books
Fisichella R., The Jubilee of Hope. Ancient and New Signs , San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 2024.
Grillo A. – Catella A., Indulgence. History and meaning, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 1999.
Contributions
Fisichella R., «The Jubilee indulgence», in Id., The signs of the Jubilee, San Paolo, Cinisello Balsamo (MI) 1999, 113-126.
Dictionaries and Encyclopedias
Gervais J.-M., «Indulgence», in Apostolic Penitentiary – M. Sodi – KJ Nykiel – N. Reali (eds.), Sin, Mercy, Reconciliation. Theological-Pastoral Dictionary, LEV, Vatican City 2016, 202-210.
Palazzini G., «Indulgence», in F. Roberti – P. Palazzini (eds.), Dictionary of moral theology , Studium Edizioni, Rome 19684.
Rahner K., «Indulgence», in Id., Sacramentum mundi. Theological encyclopedia, IV, Morcelliana, Brescia 1975, 518-532.
