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What is an Indulgence?

An indulgence is either plenary or partial, that is, it frees a person from all or from some of the temporal punishment due to sins.

 

A plenary indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who devoutly make a visit to a parish church on the feast day of its patron saint.

About Indulgences

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• The requirements for gaining a plenary indulgence are the performance of the indulgenced work and fulfillment of three conditions: Sacrament of Reconciliation, Eucharistic communion, and prayer for the pope’s intentions.

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• The condition requiring prayer for the pope’s intentions is satisfied by reciting once the Our Father and Hail Mary for his intentions; nevertheless all the faithful have the option of reciting any other prayer suited to their own piety and devotion.

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• To gain an indulgence attached to a particular day any required visit to a church or oratory may be made from noon of the day proceeding until midnight at the end of the assigned day. A devout visit includes the recitation of the Lord’s Prayer & the Creed.

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• A plenary indulgence may be gained only once on any day.

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• No one gaining an indulgence may apply it to other living persons, however, both partial and plenary indulgences can always be applied to the dead as suffrages.

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• To be capable of gaining indulgences a person must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the time the prescribed works are completed.

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This information was taken from the website of St. Alphonsus Liguori Catholic Church in Zionsville, IN