Q: From what I learned in history class, indulgences caused major issues for the church in the 16th century and was one of the main reasons why the Protestant Reformation happened. If indulgences were that much of a problem, then why does the church still have them?
A: I think a traditional Latin maxim applies here: “abusus non tollit usum,” or “abuse does not take away the proper use.” Or, in other words, just because a thing may have been abused in the past or may have the potential to be misused, it does not logically follow that the very same thing can never have its legitimate uses.
For some background, indulgences are a special favor granted by the church on the occasion of completing some pious work — like saying a certain prayer or visiting a particular shrine, etc. — which brings about “remission in the sight of God of the temporal punishment due for sins, the guilt of which has already been forgiven” (See Canon 992 of the Code of Canon Law).
This means that a person’s soul is eased in their sufferings in purgatory or, in the case of a plenary indulgence, a soul is freed from purgatory. A faithful Catholic may earn an indulgence for themselves, or they may apply it to a person who has already died.
The causes of the Protestant Reformation are complicated, involving various social, political and religious influences. But relevant to our discussion here, although historians debate some of the details, the general story is that in the 1500s money was being collected for indulgences, in part to fund the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
In theory it was possible to defend this as the indulgence being attached to the pious work of almsgiving, but in practice the promotion of indulgences in this way took on a dangerously commercial tone.
The then-Catholic monk Martin Luther was scandalized by what he saw as the sale of indulgences, and famously criticized the practice in his “95 theses.” Although Luther may have originally intended to challenge abuses from the point of view of a reform-minded but faithful Catholic, he did depart from the church’s doctrine on various points and of course eventually wound up separating altogether from communion with the Catholic Church.
Yet even if indulgences were used badly at previous points of history, when understood properly they still have value for the church even today. And in fact, indulgences are tied in to many key Catholic doctrines such as the nature of purgatory and the communion of saints.
We believe that purgatory is a state a soul enters after death when that soul is ultimately destined for heaven but is not yet prepared to enter into the full presence of God. The so-called “temporal punishment due to sin” that happens in purgatory is not so much “punishment” as it is a process of purification and the healing of spiritual wounds, which even repented and forgiven sins can leave behind.
Those of us still on earth can actively strive for a deeper sense of conversion and detachment from sin, but the souls in purgatory can no longer help themselves in this way and are dependent on our prayers and penances.
But because many of the saints were holy beyond what was needed for their own salvation, the church sees their “extra” holiness as being “stored up” in what we call the church’s treasury of grace.
Because Jesus gave the church, through St. Peter, the power to “bind and loose” spiritual things in both earth and heaven, (Mt 16:19) the church is able to apply this “stored up” grace to souls more in need. This distribution of grace is what happens when an indulgence is granted. See Paragraphs 1471-1479 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church for a fuller explanation.
However, indulgences can only be earned, never sold; and today the church avoids any association of indulgences with the exchange of money.
Jenna Marie Cooper, who holds a licentiate in canon law, is a consecrated virgin and a canonist whose column appears weekly at OSV News. Send your questions to CatholicQA@osv.com.
