Morals of the Church
Library › Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology › Volume II › Book III. On the Aids of the Christian Life, or on the Sacraments › Treatise V. On Penance › Dissertation II. On the Sacrament of Penance › Appendix. On Indulgences › Part I. On Indulgences Generally

Section — Wouters, Manual of Moral Theology

Section IV. On the Transfer, Suspension, and Cessation of Indulgences

505.

I. Transfer of indulgences consists in this, that they are transferred from one place to another or from one time to another. Some things must be noted only about transfer with respect to time. Now, having regard to canon 922:

  1. If the external solemnity of a feast is transferred, the indulgences attached to the feast are transferred to the day on which the external solemnity is held; otherwise, if only the Office and Mass are transferred and the external solemnity is held on the proper day.

  2. If the matter concerns feasts which are celebrated without external solemnity, then the indulgences are transferred if the feast is only occasionally transferred.

  3. Indulgences attached to sacred supplications or to novendial, septenary, or triduan prayers, which are performed before or after the feast or even while its octave lasts, are transferred or not transferred according as the indulgences attached to the feast day itself are transferred or not transferred.

Note. Nevertheless, observe that the same indulgence cannot be acquired twice, even at a different time. Thus one who, for example, in one diocese has gained the indulgence attached to the feast of the Immaculate Conception cannot gain the same indulgence again in another diocese if he is there on the day on which the external solemnity of the feast is celebrated in that place.1 But for the Portiuncula Indulgence it was declared on January 13, 19302 that Christ's faithful can obtain it on the second day of the month in one church and on the Sunday next following in another church where that day has been substituted according to the norm of the Decree of the Sacred Penitentiary dated July 10, 1924, to VII.3

1 Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, January 12, 1878 (Decreta authentica, n. 435, to III).

2 A.A.S. 1930, p. 23.

3 A.A.S. 1924, p. 346.

IndulgencesThe Nature of an IndulgenceThe Granting of Indulgences

506.

II. Suspension of indulgences consists in this, that indulgences cease for a time, but when the time has passed, they revive without a new act of the superior. Now:

  1. Indulgences attached to some church are suspended if the church is overturned from its foundations; they revive, however, if within fifty years it is built in the same or almost the same place and under the same title (canon 924, § 1). It is said "almost the same place," that is, at a small distance, for example twenty or thirty paces. If a church is renewed even totally through successive repairs, the indulgences persist.

  2. Likewise indulgences attached to an altar are suspended if the altar is destroyed; but they revive if it is rebuilt under the same title and in the same church, even in another place.1 Indulgences attached to a mission cross are continued if a new cross is substituted for a fallen or destroyed cross, provided the new cross is erected in the same or almost the same place, with at least the tacit consent of the Bishop.2

1 Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, September 16, 1623† (Decreta authentica, n. 317); July 18, 1902 (A.S.S. 1902, p. 62).

2 Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, February 22, 1888 (cf. Analecta ecclesiastica 1902, p. 261); July 20, 1901.

IndulgencesThe Nature of an IndulgenceThe Granting of Indulgences

507.

III. Cessation of indulgences has place:

  1. By the lapse of the time for which they were granted.

  2. By revocation by the one granting or his Superior.

  3. By the death of the one granting or by the resolution of his right, they cease only if they were given with the clause "at our good pleasure," or another equivalent clause; but not if they were given absolutely, without a clause, or with the clause "at the good pleasure of the Holy See" or a similar one (cf. canons 70 and 73).

  4. By the death of the one to whom the indulgences were granted, if the matter concerns a purely personal privilege; likewise by the extinction of a Confraternity, if the extinction lawfully had place; otherwise, if unlawfully, in which case the indulgences revive when the Confraternity has been restored.1

  5. By the destruction or sale of the thing enriched with indulgences; namely, canon 924, § 2 states: Indulgences attached to rosaries or other things cease only when the rosaries or other things entirely cease to be or are sold. The exchange of one thing for another, however, seems to be equivalent to sale.2

Therefore indulgences do not cease because a price is paid after the rosary or blessed thing has been blessed, provided the sale itself had place before the blessing; nor do they cease from the fact that rosaries, crosses, etc., enriched with indulgences are given or lent to another for gaining indulgences; and this holds even if the one giving or lending the said rosaries, crosses, etc., has already used them for acquiring indulgences.3 Nor is it an obstacle that something is received or even asked, provided it is not done under the title of sale.

As regards rosaries, note that the indulgences are attached to the beads; hence the chain can be changed. If the beads are bound by a thread and this is broken so that the beads are gathered into one, the indulgences seem to be suspended and, when the rosary has been restored, to revive.

1 Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, August 26, 1840 (Decreta authentica, n. 285).

2 Cf. Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, June 4, 1721 (Decreta authentica, n. 78).

3 Cf. Sacred Penitentiary, February 18, 1921 (A.A.S. 1921, p. 164).

IndulgencesThe Nature of an IndulgenceThe Granting of Indulgences