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I thought the Catholic church didnt do this anymore.
www.cdowk.org/advanceonline/
Chad

It's still part of the spirituality of the Latin Church.

Indulgences are still a part of the teaching of the Latin Church. Why did you think it wasn't?

Fr. Deacon Ed

APOSTOLIC CONSTITUTION
OF POPE PAUL VI ~ 1967

INDULGENTIARUM DOCTRINA

WHEREBY THE REVISION
OF SACRED INDULGENCES IS PROMULGATED

http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/p...19670101_indulgentiarum-doctrina_en.html



1. The doctrine and practice of indulgences which have been in force for many centuries in the Catholic Church have a solid foundation in divine revelation which comes from the Apostles and "develops in the Church with the help of the Holy Spirit," while "as the centuries succeed one another the Church constantly moves forward toward the fullness of divine truth until the words of God reach their complete fulfillment in her."


2. It is a divinely revealed truth that sins bring punishments inflicted by God's sanctity and justice. These must be expiated either on this earth through the sorrows, miseries and calamities of this life and above all through death, or else in the life beyond through fire and torments or "purifying" punishments

That punishment or the vestiges of sin may remain to be expiated or cleansed and that they in fact frequently do even after the remission of guilt is clearly demonstrated by the doctrine on purgatory. In purgatory, in fact, the souls of those "who died in the charity of God and truly repentant, but before satisfying with worthy fruits of penance for sins committed and for omissions are cleansed after death with purgatorial punishments.

~Pope Paul VI

The Holy See has published regulations for indulgences in the just-finished Year of St. Paul and the ongoing Year of Priests.

But are those indulgences extended to the Eastern Churches (or rather to the members of the Eastern Churches - the Churches themselves are presumably not in need of indulgences)?

Fr. Serge

As an ox of an Orthodox I feel I am missing somethig here!! "INDULGENTIARUM DOCTRINA" was promulgated by Pope Paul VI not for the Roman Catholic Church but for the whole Catholic Church.

If the Pope has at his disposal an infinite amount of merits which can lessen people's time before they enter heaven after death why would the Eastern Catholic people not make full use of what the Pope is ofering? The Pope is offering them, their families and their friends, a quite inestimable boon.

I have no problem with Eastern Catholics who, as a matter of their personal piety, choose to accept the Latin theory of indulgences. I just don't like people insisting that it is something in which we must believe.

What about Greek Catholic who are in exile attending Latin Churches? Can we receive such indulgences?

Benedicite!

Yes, of course, Fr. Serge. For example, the plenary indulgence for the Year of St. Paul, just concluded, was offered to:

Clearly, anyone who fulfilled these conditions would receive the plenary indulgence for the Year of St. Paul. There is nothing in the wording of the Decree to exclude Eastern Catholics (or Eastern Orthodox, for that matter!).

Source
Urbis et Orbis Decree of the Apostolic Penitentiary [vatican.va]

Again, I may be right off the mark but this analogy came to mind.

Imagine a large penitentiary where many prisoners are doing their time. The governor issues a decree: if any of the family members are willing to do charitable work at the prison, that will benefit the prisoner at the parole hearings and his time in the penitentiary will be shortened.

Now imagine if the governor said: But this applies only to whites and not to Negro inmates or to Pakistanis.

Or imagine if the black families said: we don't want to know about it. Let the whites make use of this leniency from the governor. Our boys will serve their full sentences.

There is nothing in the wording of the Decree to exclude Eastern Catholics (or Eastern Orthodox, for that matter!).

This is true. On the other hand, indulgences make sense only within the Latin conception of the fate of souls after death. It makes little sense within a theosis-centered understanding that lacks the necessary foundational concepts such as temporal punishment for sins and the superabundance of merit. That the East lacks a doctrine of indulgences, and the West has one, does not mean that the former should add it or that the latter should discard it. Each Tradition has its own specific understanding, and neither should attempt to impose upon the other. At the same time, pastoral sensitivity demands that Eastern Catholics who choose to believe in the efficacy of indulgences should not be castigated for it or prevented from doing so. But as the doctrine is foreign to the Eastern Churches, it should not be formally encouraged by Eastern Catholic hierarchs. They, rather, should follow the repeated injunctions of the Holy See to be faithful to the fullness of their Traditions, "adding nothing, deleting nothing, changing nothing".

Weird though this may sound, it is not sufficient for the decree not to exclude the Eastern Churches specifically; what is required is a specific statement extending the grant of a specific indulgence or group of indulgences to the Eastern Churches!

Other incidental information: the only Orthodox hierarch known to grant indulgences is the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. But Latins can gain an indulgence by entering and praying in a particular Armenian Orthodox church in Jerusalem.

Ah, the joys of minutiae!

Fr. Serge

Benedicite,

It does indeed sound weird, and rather unreasonable. So if a Ukrainian Greek Catholic was in Rome during the Year of St. Paul, he could not benefit from the indulgence even if he fulfilled all the requirements of the plenary indulgence?

I see nothing about this kind of restricton in Paul VI's Indulgentiarum doctrina [vatican.va], so I can't help wondering where this norm is to be found?

The current edition of the Manual of Indulgences does have a section of Eastern Christian prayers that have an indulgence attached to them, beginning with the Akathist. Other prayers include the Coptic prayer of Incensing and the Maronite prayer of farewell to the altar.

Thus, Eastern Catholics can obtain indulgences by praying prayers from their liturgical tradition.