Case LI: Is It Necessary to Be in a State of Grace in Order to Gain Indulgences for the Souls in Purgatory?

Quite recently two prominent writers on dogma, Christian Pesch (Praelectiones dogmaticae, Ed. 3, tom. VII. p. 248) and De Augustinis (De re sacram., tom. II. 339) have favored a view held by the great Jesuit writers Suarez (Disp. 53, sect. 4, n. 6) and Bellarmine (de indulgentiis, 1. 1, c. 14), to the effect that both plenary and partial indulgences can be gained on behalf of the dead even by one who is not in the state of grace. Naturally those indulgences are excepted for gaining which confessio or contritio is required by the Church as a sine qua non.

The advocates of this theory argue as follows: Although the guilt of sin and its eternal punishment are remitted, a Christian does not by any means always escape its temporal punishment (Trid. sess. VI. can. 30, in Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 840). Peccatum is the causa efficiens of poenae temporales. Hence it is absolutely necessary for the homo in statu viae to be free from grievous sin, before he can attempt to avert poenae temporales by doing good works and gaining indulgences. If an indulgence is gained for the souls in purgatory, he who receives it is already in statu gratiae sanctificantis; that is certain. Ergo, the person gaining it need not be in the state of grace; it is only necessary for him to do the required good works.

Pesch sums up the argument more briefly: "The state of grace is required not as a cause of the indulgence, but as a disposition for receiving its effect. Therefore, if the effect is received by the deceased, the state of grace is not required in the living person who fulfills the conditions." He even asserts in contradiction to Pohle: "many theologians think that even a sinner can gain an indulgence for the dead."

Dr. Josef Pohle (Lehrbuch der Dogmatik, III. 522) is altogether opposed to this theory. Pohle argues that indulgences can only indirectly benefit the dead, and that the Church does not directly apply them to the poor souls through the agency of the living.

He is no doubt correct in this statement, but, on the other hand, it is equally correct to believe that all indulgences capable of being applied to the dead can be applied to particular souls. Although the application is per modum suffragii, and we cannot know whether the indulgence gained is applied to that particular soul, or applied in its full extent, an indulgence infallibly has some result, and has it in the case under discussion, because the status gratiae is present in all holy souls, as a dispositio ad effectum recipiendum.

It has been always the custom of the Church to apply the fructus medius of the Mass and satisfactory works and indulgences to particular souls, and this justifies us in assuming that the anima determinata infallibly receives each time some part, though perhaps a small one, of the opus satisfactorium applied to it. With regard to the effectus satisfactorius it is, according to Suarez (de euch. disp. 79, sect. 10, n. 3 sqq.), a sententia communis, that Masses for the dead infallibly secure the remission, ex opere operato, if not of the whole punishment due to it, at least of some part of it (Pohle, p. 380).

Taking all these considerations into account, we may safely regard the theory that persons in mortal sin can gain partial and plenary indulgences for the dead as thoroughly reasonable.—Dr. Gspann.