Scholion. On the Application of Indulgences to the Souls in Purgatory

Preliminary note. Although the Supreme Pontiff can grant that we gain indulgences for other living persons, in fact, the Pontiff himself so disposing, no one acquiring indulgences can apply them to others living in this life (canon 930).¹ As regards the application of indulgences to the souls in purgatory, however, we note these things:

¹ The "privilege of the altar for the dying" does not conflict with the cited canon, because in that case the priest celebrating does not acquire the indulgence; rather, the indulgence attached to the Holy Mass is applied directly by the Church to the dying person by way of absolution. Hence the Holy Office, November 9, 1922, to 1, answered affirmatively to the question whether, after canon 930 of the new Code, the existence of an altar for the dying still persisted.

I. The power of the Supreme Pontiff to grant indulgences for the departed. That the Supreme Pontiff enjoys this faculty is proximate to faith, because of the condemnation, and that repeated several times, of the contrary opinion.¹ It is established from the practice of the Church, by which the Supreme Pontiffs have established various indulgences applicable to souls in purgatory; and it follows from the dogma of the communion of Saints, by virtue of which a mutual communication of goods has place in the Church.

The manner of granting indulgences for the departed was explained above, on p. 377.

¹ Thus, for example, proposition 42 condemned by Pius VI against the Synod of Pistoia (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 1542).

II. Requisites so that one acquiring indulgences may apply them to the departed. It is required: 1. that the Supreme Pontiff has granted them as applicable to the departed; since, as canon 913, 2°, states, those inferior to the Roman Pontiff cannot grant indulgences applicable to the departed. Besides this, all indulgences granted by the Roman Pontiff, unless something else is established, are applicable to souls in purgatory (canon 930). 2. The intention of the one acquiring is required, by which he wills this and determines, in general or in particular, to whom the indulgence acquired by him is to be applied. The reason is that the Supreme Pontiff makes indulgences only applicable, as follows from canon 913, 2°, and 930. A virtual intention suffices, or even, because the matter concerns a quasi-donation, a habitual one.

It is disputed whether the state of grace is required in the one gaining. The Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, when asked several times concerning this matter, answered on August 20, 1822: Deferred; and on February 22, 1847: Let approved authors be consulted. Now from the approved authors, some¹ deny it, because the state of grace is required only as a disposition for obtaining the effect of the indulgence, that is, the remission of punishment. Therefore, if the effect is to be received by the departed person, it suffices that this person be in the state of grace, but the said state is not required in the living person who fulfills the conditions of the indulgence. Nevertheless, with St. Alphonsus (n. 534, under 10) and others,² it seems the contrary must be admitted. For by granting indulgences for the departed, the Supreme Pontiff constitutes them only as applicable, as follows both from concessions of the Supreme Pontiff and from canon 913, 2°, and canon 930; in other words, he grants to the faithful a certain right in the satisfactions of Christ and the Saints, or at least a right of offering those same satisfactions to God in the name of the Church. Now, if the matter concerns a sinner, the former cannot be admitted, since a sinner cannot merit any satisfaction for himself. As regards the latter, it likewise is admitted with difficulty that a right of this kind is granted to a subject who, even at the end of the works to be performed by him, persists in enmity with God; all the more because then the Church would grant to a sinner the faculty of doing for others what he cannot do for himself as regards previously remitted sins.

To what extent indulgences applied to the departed produce an infallible effect was explained above, on p. 377.

¹ St. Bellarmine, De Indulgentiis, book I, chapter 14; Billuart, De Indulgentiis, single dissertation, article 6.

² De Lugo, Disputation XXVII, n. 75; Tournely, De Poenitentia, last question, article 6; Wignandt, Tribunal Confessariorum, treatise 14, n. 96.

III. The measure according to which an indulgence comes to the departed.

1. If the indulgence is plenary and is applied to one person, it is understood, if we suppose that God assents to the Church making suffrage, to remit all the remaining punishments of the soul. If it is plenary and is applied to several or to all, which can be done,¹ the distribution is left to Divine Providence.

2. If the indulgence is partial, for example of one year, it is understood to remit so much punishment as would be remitted to someone if for a year he performed the penance once customarily imposed for sins according to the canons. If it is partial and is applied to several or to all, the distribution is left to the Providence of God.

¹ Raccolta, p. XI.