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Life Section : Featured Articles
How You Can Gain Indulgence during 100TH Anniversary of Fatima
Pope Francis has given all Catholics a special opportunity to gain a plenary indulgence during the Jubilee Year of the 100th Anniversary of the Fatima Apparitions, which started on November 27, 2016 and will end on November 16, 2017. The Blessed Virgin, who introduced herself as “The Lady of the Rosary,” first appeared to the three children in Fatima, Portugal, on May 13, 1917.
In order to better appreciate the importance of this opportunity we must have a clear idea of the nature and purpose of an “indulgence.”
What is an “Indulgence”?
According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), an “indulgence” is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins, whose guilt has already been forgiven. The faithful Christian, who is properly disposed, can gain such indulgence 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 the saints.
An indulgence is either partial or plenary, depending on whether it removes part or all the temporal punishment due to sin. (See CCC 1471.) An indulgence, then, deals not with sin directly, but with its effects and consequences on the sinner, as Pope Francis beautifully explains in number 22 of Misericordiae Vultus, the Apostolic Letter with which he proclaimed the Jubilee Year of Mercy. In other words, an indulgence is not a means to forgive sins, but a privileged way to reduce or even remove altogether their negative effects on the sinner.
Conditions to Gain an Indulgence
The Church authority, which grants indulgences, has also laid down what the Catholic faithful are expected to DO in order to gain them.
Essentially, in order to gain an indulgence, a Catholic has to satisfy certain prescribed CONDITIONS and perform certain prescribed GOOD WORKS.
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