Article II. On the Conditions for Gaining Indulgences.

317. Required Conditions. 1. In order that one be capable of gaining an indulgence,¹ he must be:

1. baptized;

2. not excommunicated: an excommunicated person does not become a participant in indulgences, Cn. 2262;

3. a subject of the one granting: for the grant of an indulgence is an act of jurisdiction, which cannot be exercised except over a subject;

Indulgences granted by bishops, however, can be gained both by subjects outside the territory, and by pilgrims, wanderers, and all exempt persons dwelling in the territory, unless something else is apparent from the grant.²

4. in the state of grace at least at the end of the prescribed works: for temporal punishment cannot be remitted while guilt and eternal punishment have not yet been remitted. If several works are prescribed for gaining an indulgence, it suffices that the last be completed in the state of grace, because the indulgence is acquired in the very instant in which the works prescribed by the one granting are completed.

a. The Church indicates this condition by granting indulgences to the contrite of heart or to those who, with at least a contrite heart, have performed a determined work: for these words signify nothing other than that the state of grace is required for gaining an indulgence, and that, if it is not present, it must be obtained through contrition; wherefore one who already exists in the state of grace does not necessarily have to elicit an act of contrition in order to gain the indulgence.³

b. For gaining a plenary indulgence fully, the state of grace is not sufficient, but in addition there is required immunity from every venial sin, and such immunity indeed that even affection or adhesion to venial sin has been removed: for guilt not yet blotted out cannot have remitted the punishment owed for that same guilt. Therefore the greater one's immunity from venial sins, the fuller the indulgence which can be acquired.

2. In order that one really gain an indulgence.⁴

1. He must have at least a general intention of gaining it: for a benefit is not given except to one who wills it; but a habitual intention is sufficient, i.e., one had at some time and never retracted. Therefore one who elicits a general intention of gaining all indulgences which are attached to the works placed by him gains them, even if he does not think about the indulgence when the work is placed, indeed even if he does not know that an indulgence is attached to the work which he performs. Nevertheless it is very much to be recommended, although it is not necessary, that every morning the intention be elicited of gaining all indulgences which can be obtained through works done during the day.

2. He must fulfill the enjoined works at the stated time and in the stated manner. For these works have the character of a condition under which indulgences are granted; therefore he who does not fulfill the condition integrally does not gain the indulgence, and neither error nor any good faith excuses in this matter. Wherefore if a notable part of them is omitted for any cause whatever, even a reasonable one, the indulgence is not acquired; but the effect is not impeded if a slight part of the enjoined work is omitted, e.g., in the rosary one Our Father and Hail Mary, because the work is nevertheless completed as to substance.

a. If several works are prescribed for gaining an indulgence, it is indifferent in what order they are performed. Thus if confession, communion, and visitation of a church are required, the visitation can be made both before and after the other works, even if in the concession of the indulgence it is said: Those who, confessed and refreshed with holy communion, shall have visited.⁵

b. For gaining partial indulgences, works already due under sin from another title do not avail, unless he who grants the indulgence has expressly established otherwise (n. 303, 4), because by one action one cannot satisfy several obligations, each of which demands singular actions.⁶ Therefore we cannot gain the indulgences attached to Cruciger rosaries by reciting, for example, a Hail Mary which pertains to the divine office or has been enjoined for penance; nor can the obligation of reciting prayers prescribed for gaining indulgences be satisfied by the canonical hours; nor by performing a work owed from a vow can we at the same time gain the indulgence attached to the same work by the supreme pontiff. But by paschal communion we can gain indulgences for whose gaining holy communion is prescribed;⁷ likewise through works which are performed from the statutes or customs of religious communities, if they do not oblige under sin, indulgences attached to those same works can be obtained.

c. Nevertheless he who performs a work enjoined upon him as sacramental penance and perhaps enriched with indulgences can at the same time both satisfy the penance and gain the indulgences.⁸

¹ Cn. 925, 1.

² Cn. 927.

³ S. C. Indl., 17 Dec. 1870, n. 427.

⁴ Cn. 925, 2.

⁵ S. C. Indl., 19 May 1759, n. 214.

⁶ S. C. Indl., 29 May 1841, n. 291. Cn. 932.

⁷ S. C. Indl., 10 May 1844, n. 327.

⁸ Cn. 932.

318. Conditions Required for Gaining an Indulgence for the Dead: a. The grant of the pontiff by which the indulgence can be applied to the dead: for by his own will no one can apply an indulgence to another, neither living nor dead.

b. At least a habitual intention of applying them to the dead: for the supreme pontiff only grants that they can be applied; he himself does not apply them to the dead. They can be applied either to a single soul, or to several, or to all the souls of the faithful existing in purgatory.

c. Whether he who applies an indulgence to the dead must be in the state of grace in order that it profit them is not clear; nor did the Congregation of Indulgences, when asked about this matter, wish to define the controversy.¹

On this question these things must be noted: a. From the nature of the thing nothing prevents even one who is in the state of sin from being able to gain an indulgence, not indeed for himself, but for the dead: for the works by which he gains the indulgence do not have satisfactory value from the dignity of the one working, but from the grant of the Church. b. Those who think that even a sinner can gain indulgences for the dead say that it is not required that he who gains an indulgence for the dead first acquire it for himself and then transfer it to the dead, but it suffices that he place the conditions prescribed by the Church, and when these have been placed the indulgence will come to the dead according to the mind of the supreme pontiff.² g. But those who hold that only the just can gain indulgences for the dead think that no one can apply to another what he has not first made his own.³ d. Nevertheless this seems certain: that a priest who celebrates Mass in the state of mortal sin at a privileged altar (whether the privilege is local or personal) gains the indulgence of this altar for the soul for whom he offers the sacrifice.⁴

¹ The S. C. Indl., 20 Aug. 1822, answered: postponed; on 22 Feb. 1847 it answered: let approved authors be consulted.

² Suarez, disp. 53, sect. 4; Bellarmine, De indulgent. l. 1, c. 14; Ballerini-Palmieri V, n. 791.

³ S. Alphonsus, n. 534.

⁴ S. C. Indl., 12 March 1855, n. 366.

319. Works which are ordinarily prescribed by the Church for gaining a plenary indulgence are: a. confession; b. communion; c. certain prayers to be said according to the intention of the pontiff; to these sometimes is added, d. visitation of a church.

1. On confession. a. If confession is not expressly required for gaining an indulgence (as for the indulgences of the Way of the Cross), it is not necessary; but if confession is enjoined in the grant of the indulgence, it is necessary even for those who do not have mortal sins, although absolution is not necessary for them.¹

b. Confession perhaps required for gaining indulgences can always be made within the eight days preceding the day to which the indulgence is attached, or even within the whole subsequent octave.²

c. Confession and communion required for gaining an indulgence granted for exercises or missions can also be made within the octave which immediately follows the completed exercise.³

d. The faithful who are accustomed, unless lawfully impeded, to approach confession at least twice in a month or to receive holy communion daily, although once or twice during the week they abstain from it, can gain all indulgences even without an actual confession which otherwise would be necessary for gaining them, excepting indulgences of the ordinary and extraordinary jubilee or in the manner of a jubilee.⁴

Therefore for gaining indulgences occurring during the week, for those who communicate almost daily, confession is no longer required: not that which is made every other week, nor that which is made every month, indeed not even that which is made every half-year or every year.⁵

¹ S. C. Indl., 15 Dec. 1841, and 6 May 1852, n. 295 and 359.

² Cn. 931, 1.

³ Cn. 931, 2.

⁴ Cn. 931, 3.

⁵ S. C. Indl., 14 Feb. 1906.

320. 2. On communion. a. Communion can always (except in the jubilee) be received on the day before that day for which the indulgence has been granted, and through the whole octave; but the other works must be performed at the determined time.¹

b. If for gaining an indulgence the visitation of a determined church is prescribed, holy communion need not necessarily be received there; but if holy communion is received in that church, it is not necessary that another visitation be made in addition, provided the time determined for gaining the indulgence is observed and the prescribed prayers are recited.

c. Excepting the indulgence of the jubilee, paschal communion avails for gaining indulgences which require holy communion.² Moreover, one and the same communion (as also confession) suffices for gaining several indulgences granted for the same day, each of which requires communion (and confession), provided the remaining works are performed as many times as there are indulgences which one is going to gain on that day.³

¹ Cn. 931, 1.

² S. C. Indl., 10 May 1844, n. 327.

³ S. C. Indl., 29 May 1841, n. 291.

321. 3. On the visitation of a church. a. If visitation of a church is prescribed indeterminately, the visitation of some church or public oratory is required and suffices; here it must be noted that semi-public oratories are in reality private oratories, and therefore their visitation does not suffice for gaining indulgences without a special indult.¹

An indult has been granted that the faithful of either sex who live a common life in religious communities, institutes of education, and hospitals erected with the consent of the ordinary, and those serving them, if they lack a church or public oratory, can visit the chapel of their own house, in which they can satisfy the obligation of hearing Mass, as often as for gaining indulgences the visitation of some church or indeterminate public oratory is prescribed.² Therefore if they have a church or public oratory, likewise if the visitation of a determined church is prescribed, the indult does not avail.

b. The visitation of a church or oratory can be made from noon of the preceding day until the midnight which closes the day established.³

c. He is said to visit a church who enters it with the intention of worshiping God; but if one about to visit the church cannot enter it because of some impediment, e.g., because of too great a multitude of people or because of closed doors, a moral entrance suffices, by the fact that he recites the prayers near the doors of the church.⁴

d. For making the visitation of a church which is instituted processionally, it is not sufficient if the clergy and people pass through the church praying, nor if the clergy with some from the procession enter the church and recite a common prayer while the others stand outside the church; but it is required that all who can be contained in it enter the church, and there recite a common prayer.⁵

e. For gaining several indulgences for which the visitation of a church is prescribed, it does not suffice to repeat the prayers as many times as there are indulgences to be gained; rather, as many visitations must be made as there are indulgences to be gained, i.e., it is necessary to go out of the church and enter the church again as many times.⁶

¹ S. C. Indl., 22 Aug. 1812, n. 310.

² S. Officium, 14 Jan. 1909. Cn. 929.

³ Cn. 923.

⁴ Cf. Behringer-Hilgers, p. 117.

⁵ S. Penitentiary, 18 Oct. 1901.

⁶ S. C. Indl., 29 Feb. 1864, n. 399.

322. 4. On the prayers to be recited. a. If prayer is prescribed for gaining indulgences, mental prayer does not suffice, but at least some vocal prayer is required, which ordinarily is not determined, but is left to the judgment of each one. But it cannot be demonstrated by any argument that five or six Our Fathers and Hail Marys are required, or another prayer equivalent to these; on the contrary, it cannot be doubted that from the new Code one Our Father suffices for gaining the indulgence.¹

b. Prayers must be recited according to the intention of the supreme pontiff, whose intention is the exaltation of holy mother Church, the extirpation of heresies, the propagation of the faith, the conversion of sinners, and peace among Christian princes. An explicit intention is not required, but this implicit intention suffices: according to the intention of the Roman pontiff, or according to the due intention, which all have who recite prayers for gaining an indulgence.

c. If special prayers have been assigned for gaining indulgences, they can be recited in whatever language, provided the faithfulness of the version is clear either from a declaration of the Sacred Penitentiary or of the ordinary of some place where the language into which the prayer is translated is vernacular. Indulgences cease on account of any addition, subtraction, or interpolation.²

d. It suffices to recite the assigned prayers alternately with a companion, or to follow them mentally while they are recited by another.³

e. In order that deaf-mutes and mutes can gain indulgences for obtaining which vocal prayer is prescribed, these things are established: a. if public prayers are prescribed, they must join themselves to the people and pray mentally; b. if prayers are to be recited privately, they can pour them forth by signs or mentally, or merely read them without any pronunciation;⁴ nevertheless, if the visitation of a church is prescribed, they are bound to visit it.

¹ S. C. Indl., 13 Sept. 1888. Cn. 934. Cf. Bremer, Linz. Quartalsch., 1919, p. 586.

² Cn. 934, 3.

³ Cn. 934, 3.

⁴ S. C. Indl., 18 July 1902. Cn. 936.

323. Various Decrees. From those things which have been established concerning indulgences by the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, these should be noted:

1. Although partial indulgences which extend to an extraordinarily great number of years must be regarded as suspect, nevertheless indulgences of this kind have sometimes actually been granted; however, by a general decree of 26 May 1898 all indulgences of a thousand or of several thousands of years which are said to have been granted up to this time, or have been granted, are revoked.

2. The words by which indulgences are sometimes granted: in the form accustomed by the Church, signify that they are granted to the truly contrite, i.e., to those who, absolved from sins, exist in the state of grace; and if indulgences are granted under the accustomed conditions, there are understood, besides the state of grace and the intention of gaining the indulgence, confession, communion, and prayers to be said according to the intention of the supreme pontiff.

3. If the faculty is granted of applying indulgences to certain objects in the form accustomed by the Church, these words signify that the application must be made with intention and by forming the sign of the cross over the thing to be blessed, without there being need to pronounce some formula or sprinkle the thing with holy water.¹

4. Indulgences attached to feasts or sacred processions or novendial, septenary, and triduan prayers, which are performed before or after the feast or even during its octave, are understood to be transferred to that day to which feasts of this kind are lawfully transferred, if the transferred feast has an office with Mass without solemnity and external celebration, and the transfer is made in perpetuity, or if the solemnity and external celebration is transferred either for a time or in perpetuity.²

5. Confessors can commute pious works enjoined for gaining indulgences into other works for those who, detained by a lawful impediment, cannot perform the same.³ Commutations which occur in the matter of indulgences must be made in the act of sacramental confession, unless it is expressly granted that they can be made outside confession.⁴

6. He who obtains from the apostolic see diverse faculties, e.g., of a personal privileged altar, of erecting stations of the Way of the Cross, of blessing crosses, medals, etc., must exhibit to the Ordinary the faculty of erecting stations, even if in the grant of this matter no mention has been made; but he need not exhibit the other faculties unless this is prescribed in the grant.

7. With respect to the clause concerning the consent of the Ordinary of the place, which is customarily inserted in rescripts by which the faculty of blessing rosaries, crosses, etc., with application of apostolic indulgences and those of St. Bridget is granted, it has been declared: a. that in order validly to exercise this faculty, it is required that the priest be approved for hearing confessions (at least of men); b. that in order to exercise it licitly, the consent of the Ordinary of the place in which one wishes to use it is required. Although it is to be desired that this consent be express, nevertheless tacit or implicit consent also suffices, and if in practice it cannot be done otherwise, even prudently presumed consent.⁵ g. For religious who do not use this faculty outside their own religious house, the permission of the regular Superior suffices, even if in the rescript it is said: with the consent of the Ordinary of the place.⁶

8. The prayer Sacrosanctae (with Our Father and Hail Mary), from the grant of Leo X, has this effect: that defects and faults contracted from human frailty in paying the sacred office are indulgenced. To obtain this end it suffices that the prayer be said once at the end of the whole office.

It is not necessary that it be recited immediately after the sacred office; the indulgence is acquired even if some interval of time (several hours) intervenes between the sacred office and this prayer. Nevertheless it must be said on bended knees, except in the case of illness or of a graver impediment. Therefore any reasonable cause does not suffice.

Note. To obtain the fruit of indulgences the conditions under which they are granted must be fulfilled integrally and exactly; and in like manner, in establishing confraternities or congregations, the prescribed formalities must be accurately observed, so that the faithful may gain the indulgences attached to them. Knowledge of these matters can be drawn without difficulty from the work cited above, especially very useful to pastors: Beringer-Hilgers, Die Ablasse, etc.

¹ S. C. Indl., 7 Jan. 1843, n. 313.

² Cn. 922.

³ Cn. 935.

⁴ Benedict XIV, const. Convocatio, 25 Nov. 1749.

⁵ S. C. Indl., 14 June 1901.

⁶ S. C. Indl., 4 June 1888.