Article I: Of the Granting of Indulgences

Let all greatly esteem indulgences, that is, the remission before God of temporal punishment due for sins, already deleted as regards guilt, which ecclesiastical authority grants from the treasury of the Church for the living by way of absolution, for the dead by way of suffrage.

Besides the Roman Pontiff, to whom the dispensation of the whole spiritual treasury of the Church has been committed by Christ the Lord, only those can lavish indulgences by ordinary power to whom this has been expressly granted by law.

Those inferior to the Roman Pontiff cannot:

1° Commit to others the faculty of granting indulgences, unless this has expressly been granted to them by the Apostolic See by indult.

2° Grant indulgences applicable to the dead.

3° Add other indulgences to the same thing or act of piety or sodality to which indulgences have already been granted by the Apostolic See or by another, unless new conditions to be fulfilled are prescribed.

Bishops can impart the papal blessing with a plenary indulgence, according to the prescribed formula, each in his own diocese twice in the year, that is, on the solemn day of the Paschal Resurrection and on another solemn feast day to be designated by them, even if they have only assisted at the solemn Mass; Abbots or Prelates nullius, Vicars and Prefects Apostolic, even if they lack episcopal dignity, can do this in their territories on only one of the more solemn days in the year.

Regulars who have the privilege of imparting the papal blessing are held not only by the obligation of observing the prescribed formula, but cannot use this privilege except in their own churches and in the churches of nuns or tertiaries legitimately aggregated to their Order; not, however, on the same day and place on which the Bishop imparts it.

Bishops, Abbots or Prelates nullius, Vicars and Prefects Apostolic, and major Superiors of an exempt clerical religious institute can designate and declare one privileged daily perpetual altar, provided that another is not had, in their cathedral, abbatial, collegiate, conventual, parochial, and quasi-parochial churches, but not in public or semipublic oratories, unless they are united to a parochial church or subsidiary to the same.

§ 1. On the day of the Commemoration of all the faithful departed, all Masses enjoy the privilege as if they were celebrated at a privileged altar.

§ 2. All altars of a church are privileged during those days on which the supplication of the Forty Hours is carried out in it.

§ 1. In order that an altar be indicated as privileged, nothing else is to be inscribed except: privileged altar, perpetual or for a time, daily or not, according to the words of the grant.

§ 2. For Masses to be celebrated on a privileged altar, a greater alms-offering for the Mass cannot be exacted under pretext of the privilege.

§ 1. New indulgences, even those granted to churches of regulars, which have not been promulgated at Rome, are not to be published without the local Ordinary having been consulted.

§ 2. In publishing books, booklets, etc., in which grants of indulgences for various prayers or pious works are reviewed, the prescription of can. 1388 is to be observed.

Those who have obtained from the Supreme Pontiff grants of indulgences for all the faithful are held by the obligation, under penalty of nullity of the grace obtained, of bringing authentic copies of those grants to the Sacred Penitentiary.

§ 1. A plenary indulgence granted for feasts of Our Lord Jesus Christ or for feasts of the Blessed Virgin Mary is understood to be granted only for feasts which are found in the universal calendar.

§ 2. A plenary or partial indulgence granted for feasts of the Apostles is understood to be granted only for their natal feast.

§ 3. A plenary indulgence granted as daily, perpetual, or for a time to those visiting some church or public oratory is to be understood in such a way that it can be acquired by any faithful person on any day, but only once in a year, unless something else is expressly said in the decree.

Indulgences attached to feasts or sacred supplications, or to novena, seven-day, or three-day prayers which are carried out before or after the feast or even while its octave continues, are understood to be transferred to that day to which feasts of this kind are legitimately transferred, if the transferred feast has an office with Mass without solemnity and external celebration and the transfer is made perpetually, or if the solemnity and external celebration are transferred either for a time or perpetually.

To gain an indulgence fixed to some day, if a visit to a church or oratory is required, this can be done from noon of the preceding day up to midnight which closes the appointed day.

§ 1. According to the norm of can. 75, indulgences attached to some church do not cease if the church is utterly destroyed and is again built within fifty years in the same or almost the same place and under the same title.

§ 2. Indulgences attached to rosaries or other things cease only when the rosaries or other things completely cease to be or are sold.