Please Pray For the Poor Souls in Purgatory!



INDULGENCES REVISED BY POPE PAUL VI, JANUARY 1, 1967


(Source: Enchiridion of Indulgences: Norms and Grants; Authorized English Edition. Translated by William T. Barry, C.SS.R., Catholic Book Publishing Co., New York, 1969)

1.An indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as far as their guilt is concerned. This remission the faithful with the proper dispositions and under certain determined conditions acquire through the intervention of the Church which, as minister of the Redemption, authoritatively dispenses and applies the treasury of the satisfaction won by Christ and the Saints.” (Norms, p. 21)

There are no longer any time period attached to indulgences (i.e. days, or years). There are only two types of indulgence: PARTIAL which removes a part of the temporal punishment due for sin and full (PLENARY) which removes all temporal punishment due for sin. A Plenary indulgence can be acquired once only in the course of the day.


NORM 26: “To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work* to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill the following three conditions (p. 26):


1. Sacramental confession (within 7 days of the work*),

2. Eucharistic Communion, on the day of the “work*,”

3. Prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff (e.g. one Our Father, & one Hail Mary, viz. Norm 29), on the day of the “work*.”

It is further required that all attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent.”


_______________________________________________________________________
*Two ways to help the poor souls in Purgatory by doing the “Work:”

1. WORK: A Prayerful visit to a church on November 2nd, Feast of the Poor Souls, consisting of at least, 1 Our Father and the Creed.(viz. Norm 25, Grant #67 p. 77)


2. WORK : A visit to a Cemetery. An indulgence, applicable only to the Souls in Purgatory, is granted to the faithful, who devoutly visit a cemetery and pray, even if only mentally, for the departed. The indulgence is plenary each day from the 1st to the 8th of November; on other days of the year it is partial. (Grant # 13, p. 52)