Catholic teaching states that when a person sins, they acquire the liability of guilt and the liability of punishment. [9] A mortal sin (one that is grave or serious in nature and is committed knowingly and freely) is considered to be an active refusal of communion with God, and to separate a person from him to the end of suffering the eternal death of hell as an effect of this rejection, a consequence known as the " eternal punishment" of sin. The Sacrament of Penance removes this guilt and the liability of eternal punishment related to mortal sin. [10] Terror over the fate of the dead stemmed from the church’s long-standing belief that if punishment for sin is not completed in this life, it continues after death when the soul departs for a spiritual place called purgatory. The soul must fully satisfy the punishment required by God’s justice before it can leave purgatory, come before God and enter heaven. The church has never claimed it could exercise authority over purgatory, the realm of God, to reduce punishment, but unscrupulous priests claimed indulgences could help the dead. The current practice of seeking indulgences

Errant itaque indulgentiarum predicatores ii, qui dicunt per pape indulgentias hominem ab omni pena solvi et salvari (Thesis 21).

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On 31 October 1522 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to a church door in Wittenburg, protesting at the abusive sale of indulgence to fund the building of the new basilica of St. Peter’s at the Vatican. Many Catholics assume that the practice of indulgences ceased, if not then, at least by the time of the Second Vatican Council. Yet in 1967 Bl. Pope Paul VI issued an Apostolic Constitution ‘to give greater dignity and esteem to the use of indulgences’. Norms were issued the following year. Marshall, Peter (October 2017). 1517: Martin Luther and the Invention of the Reformation. Oxford University Press. p. 30. ISBN 9780199682010. The Council of Epaone in 517 witnesses to the rise of the practice of replacing severe canonical penances with a new milder penance: its 29th canon reduced to two years the penance that apostates were to undergo on their return to the church, but obliged them to fast one day in three during those two years, to come to church and take their place at the penitents' door, and to leave with the catechumens. Any who objected to the new arrangement was to observe the much longer ancient penance. [38] Many people assume that the Catholic Church stopped granting indulgences after Luther’s famous rejection of them. Indeed, nearly 50 years later, Pope Pius V put a stop to their sale. However, Pius V also affirmed the validity of indulgences themselves so long as no money was exchanged. By 1563, he had endorsed a comprehensive doctrine on indulgences that emerged from a series of meetings with high-ranking clergy, called the Council of Trent. Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary (Vatican); Enchiridion of Indulgences: Norms and Grants, trans. by William T. Barry from the Second Rev. Ed. of the Enchiridion indulgentiarum ... with English Supplement; 1969, Catholic Book Publishing Co. N.B.: "Originally published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1968." Without ISBN.

Both partial and plenary indulgences can be granted by the diocesan bishop and that of and eparchy, by the major archbishop, metropolite and patriarch, by the cardinal, as well as by the Pope and the Apostolic Penitentiary. [25] The temporal punishment that follows sin is thus undergone either during life on earth or in purgatory. In this life, as well as by patient acceptance of sufferings and trials, the necessary cleansing from attachment to creatures may, at least in part, be achieved by turning to God in prayer and penance and by works of mercy and charity. [9] Indulgences (from the Latin verb 'indulgere', meaning "to forgive", "to be lenient toward") [12] are a help towards achieving this purification. Kirsch, Johann Peter (1911). "The Reformation". The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 12. Transcribed for New Advent by Marie Jutras. New York: Robert Appleton Company . Retrieved 23 September 2010. In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence ( Latin: indulgentia, from indulgeo, 'permit') is "a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins". [1] The Catechism of the Catholic Church describes an indulgence as "a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and all of the saints". [2] Inscription on the Archbasilica of St. John Lateran in Rome: Indulgentia plenaria perpetua quotidiana toties quoties pro vivis et defunctis (English: "Perpetual everyday plenary indulgence on every occasion for the living and the dead") Apostolic Benediction and Plenary Indulgence Parchment It is only possible to gain one indulgence per day, but otherwise we can obtain the indulgence throughout the Year of Mercy.Here's How You Can Get the Vatican's New Coronavirus Indulgences". National Catholic Register. 24 March 2020 . Retrieved 2020-03-27. From the early church onward, bishops could reduce or dispense with the rigours of penances, but indulgences emerged in only the 11th and 12th centuries when the idea of purgatory took widespread hold and when the popes became the activist leaders of the reforming church. In their zeal, they promoted the militant reclamation of once-Christian lands—first of Iberia in the Reconquista, then of the Holy Land in the Crusades—offering “full remission of sins,” the first indulgences, as inducements to participation. Plenary Indulgence". World Youth Day 2008. 2008. Archived from the original on 2 September 2007 . Retrieved 2 November 2019. Peters, Edward (2008). A Modern Guide to Indulgences: Rediscovering This Often Misinterpreted Teaching. LiturgyTrainingPublications. p. 13. ISBN 9781595250247.