What Does the Church Say About Plenary Indulgences?

The adjective is not decorative. It designates a precise spiritual reality, and a difference of nature — not merely of degree — from the partial indulgence.

All or nothing: the total remission of temporal punishment

The Code of Canon Law gives the dividing line: an indulgence is plenary or partial “according as it frees in part or in whole from the temporal punishment due for sins”^[3]. A partial indulgence remits a share of the debt of purification; a plenary indulgence wipes it out entirely.

The consequence is striking, and it explains the saints' fervour for this practice: whoever fully gains a plenary indulgence is, at that instant, in the state in which the end of a long purgatory would place him. His temporal debt is settled. If he died at once, he would enter Heaven directly, without passing through the state of purification called purgatory^[4].

“She would go straight to Heaven”: what that really means

This spectacular formula needs to be properly understood, to avoid two misunderstandings.

First, a plenary indulgence does not make one a saint all at once, nor does it remove future struggles: it does not touch guilt (already forgiven), nor frailty, nor future temptations. It settles a debt of reparation built up by past sins that have already been forgiven. It is a completed healing, not a canonisation.

Second, it is not a sleight of hand that would dispense with conversion: on the contrary, as we shall see, it requires a real conversion of heart to be obtained in fullness. It is precisely this requirement that forbids seeing it as a trick or an easy shortcut. The Catechism sums it up: temporal punishments “must not be conceived as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin”^[5] — and the plenary indulgence is the means by which the Church, drawing on the merits of Christ, completes this natural healing.

A requirement, a gift: the Catholic balance

The plenary indulgence holds together two truths that are often wrongly opposed. On the one hand, it is a free gift: no one “earns” by his own strength the total wiping-out of his punishment; it is the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints that is applied to the faithful by the authority of the Church^[6]. On the other, this gift is not automatic: it requires an interior disposition so lofty that it shows salvation is never mechanical. Grace and freedom, gift and conversion: the plenary indulgence is a compendium of the whole Catholic theology of grace.

To gain a plenary indulgence, one must perform the prescribed indulgenced work, fulfil three usual conditions, and above all satisfy a decisive interior disposition^[7]. The Church first sets conditions of capacity: to gain an indulgence, one must be baptised, not excommunicated, in a state of grace at least at the completion of the prescribed work, and have at least the intention of receiving it^[8].

The prescribed indulgenced work

A plenary indulgence is always attached to a determined work: reading Scripture for half an hour, making the Stations of the Cross, reciting the rosary in church, passing through the Holy Door of a Jubilee, and so on (see the list below). This work is not a “price to pay”: it is the concrete act of faith and charity in which the faithful unite themselves to the prayer of the Church. Without an indulgenced work, no indulgence.

Sacramental confession

One must be in a state of grace, which presupposes, for anyone conscious of grave sin, prior sacramental confession^[9]. This recalls that an indulgence presupposes forgiveness: it forgives no sin; it frees from the punishment that remains after forgiveness. That is why confession is the gateway to the whole regime of indulgences.

Eucharistic Communion

One must receive Eucharistic Communion, preferably on the very day of the work^[10]. The plenary indulgence is thus anchored in the two sacraments of forgiveness and of life: penance, which reconciles, and the Eucharist, which unites to Christ. Far from a dry legalism, it plunges into sacramental life.

Prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff

Lastly, one must pray for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff — not for the person of the pope, but for the intentions he carries in the name of the universal Church. An Our Father and a Hail Mary suffice, though the faithful remain free to add other prayers^[11]. This condition inscribes the personal act within the communion of the whole Church: one does not gain an indulgence “for oneself all alone,” but by uniting oneself to the entire body.

How long before or after the work?

Here the Church shows great pastoral flexibility: the three conditions (confession, Communion, prayer) may be fulfilled “several days before or after” the performance of the indulgenced work^[12]. It is nevertheless “fitting” that Communion and prayer for the pope's intentions take place on the same day. A single confession can avail for several plenary indulgences; but each requires its own Communion and its own prayer^[13].

The decisive condition: detachment from all sin, even venial

The real difficulty is not administrative: it is spiritual. A plenary indulgence requires that “all attachment to sin, even venial sin,” be excluded^[14]. This is not only the absence of grave sin: it is the absence of all attachment — of every secret complacency — towards the slightest fault, including the small imperfections one loves without wanting to give them up.

“To acquire a plenary indulgence, the indulgenced work must be performed and three conditions fulfilled: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff. It is further required that all affection for sin, even venial sin, be excluded.” — Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th typical edition, 1999, Norm 20^[15]

Yet such total detachment is rare. That is why, in practice, one gains far fewer plenary indulgences than one thinks: if detachment is not complete, “the indulgence will be only partial”^[16]. This requirement is not a trap: it states the truth of the indulgence. It is not a magical act that would bypass conversion, but its fruit — what Paul VI, echoing the Gospel, calls metanoia, the turning of the heart.

“Indulgences cannot be gained without a sincere conversion of mind (metanoia) and union with God, to which is added the performance of the prescribed works.” — Paul VI, Indulgentiarum doctrina, 1 January 1967, no. 11^[17]

Even so, this requirement must not be turned into a source of anguish. The detachment asked for is that of the will, not of feelings: sensing disordered inclinations within oneself does not prevent the indulgence, provided the will refuses to consent to them and turns towards God. It is a call to fervour, not a motive for scrupulosity (see below, Difficulties and objections).

Three practical rules frame the plenary indulgence. They are simple, but often ignored.

Only one plenary indulgence per day

Only one plenary indulgence can be gained per day^[18]. Partial indulgences, by contrast, can be gained several times a day. The ordinary exception concerns the dying: one who has already gained a plenary indulgence during the day can still receive the plenary indulgence at the point of death (see below)^[19]. In a Jubilee Year, the proper decree may additionally provide for a further case: for the 2025 Jubilee — a Holy Year closed on 6 January 2026 —, the possibility of applying a second plenary indulgence to the departed on the same day^[20].

One confession for several, but one Communion and one prayer per indulgence

As seen above, one and the same sacramental confession can dispose one for several successive plenary indulgences (on the following days). But each plenary indulgence requires its own Communion and its own prayer for the pope's intentions^[21]. This rule prevents “mechanical” accumulation, and attaches each indulgence to a real act of sacramental life.

For oneself or for a departed soul — never for another living person

An indulgence can be applied in only two ways: to oneself, or to a departed soul by way of suffrage^[22]. It cannot be gained for another living person. This detail is theologically revealing: an indulgence is not a “credit” transferable to whomever one wishes, but a personal act of conversion whose fruit alone can be charitably offered to a soul in purgatory — which can no longer merit for itself.

“Since the faithful departed in the process of purification are also members of the same communion of saints, we can help them, among other ways, by obtaining indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments they bear for their sins may be remitted.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1479^[23]

This is the most concrete expression of the communion of saints: the solidarity of the members of the Body of Christ, beyond death. On how and why to pray for souls, see Why pray for the dead?.

The following table sums up the rules proper to the plenary indulgence, by contrast with the partial indulgence.

Everything is codified in the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, the official collection published by the Apostolic Penitentiary (4th typical edition, 1999)^[28]. Paul VI's reform (1967), implemented by the Enchiridion, reduced the old overabundant lists in favour of four general grants — raising one's heart to God in the performance of duty; placing oneself at the service of one's neighbour in a spirit of faith; voluntarily depriving oneself of a lawful good by way of penance; openly bearing witness to one's faith^[29] — along with a set of precise works. Here are the principal ones that grant a plenary indulgence, under the usual conditions.

The four major works accessible to all

Four ordinary practices of Christian life each carry, on their own, a plenary indulgence:

• prayerful reading of Sacred Scripture for at least half an hour; below that, the indulgence is partial^[30];
• adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for at least half an hour^[31];
• the Stations of the Cross, performed before lawfully erected stations, with meditation on the Passion^[32];
• the recitation of the rosary (at least five decades — a full rosary) in a church or oratory, in the family, in a religious community or in an association of the faithful^[33].

“A plenary indulgence is granted to the faithful who devoutly recite the Marian Rosary in a church or oratory, or in the family, in a religious community, or in an association of the faithful.” — Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, grant 17^[34]

The lesson of this list is clear: the plenary indulgence is not reserved for rare exploits, but offered in the most ordinary gestures of Christian prayer — provided one puts one's heart into them.

The great liturgical occasions

Other plenary indulgences are attached to particular days or circumstances:

• the Pardon of Assisi (the Portiuncula indulgence), on 2 August, by visiting a church with recitation of the Our Father and the Creed^[35];
• visiting a church or oratory on 2 November (Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed), an indulgence applicable to the departed alone^[36];
• visiting a cemetery from 1 to 8 November, praying for the departed — a plenary indulgence each day of the octave, applicable to the departed alone^[37];
• the pope's Urbi et Orbi blessing (at Christmas, at Easter), received even by radio, television or the internet^[38];
• first Communion and attendance at a first Mass of a newly ordained priest^[39];
• adoration of the Cross on Good Friday and the renewal of baptismal promises at the Easter Vigil.

Many other acts of piety — a fervent “My Jesus, mercy,” a sign of the cross, the use of a blessed devotional object — carry a partial indulgence. The spirit of the reform is to attach indulgences not to counted gestures, but to a life of prayer, penance and charity^[40].

The most solemn form of the plenary indulgence is the Jubilee indulgence, attached to Holy Years. Since the first Jubilee of 1300, the Church has opened, at regular intervals, a season of grace in which the plenary indulgence is granted with particular generosity^[41]. The most recent ordinary Jubilee is that of 2025, “Pilgrims of Hope,” convoked by Pope Francis (2013–2025) in the bull Spes non confundit^[42]. This Holy Year has been closed since 6 January 2026 (solemnity of the Epiphany), when Pope Leo XIV shut the Holy Door of Saint Peter's Basilica^[43]: the particular provisions of the 2025 decree, described below in the past tense, expired with the Jubilee.

The Holy Door and the pilgrimage

The most visible sign of the Jubilee is the Holy Door: a walled-up doorway in the great basilicas, solemnly opened by the pope at the inauguration of the Holy Year, through which pilgrims pass as a sign of passage from sin to grace, from the world towards God. The Apostolic Penitentiary's decree for the 2025 Jubilee granted the plenary indulgence — under the usual conditions (confession, Communion, prayer for the pope's intentions, detachment from sin) — to those who made a pilgrimage to a Jubilee holy place^[44].

The places provided included the four major basilicas of Rome (Saint Peter's, Saint John Lateran, Saint Mary Major, Saint Paul Outside the Walls), the three basilicas of the Holy Land (Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, Nativity in Bethlehem, Annunciation in Nazareth), as well as the cathedrals and shrines designated by the bishops^[45]. On the meaning of pilgrimage itself, see Why go on pilgrimages?.

Devout visits and works of mercy

The 2025 decree greatly widened the means of gaining the indulgence. Besides pilgrimage, it was granted to those who:

• devoutly visited a Jubilee place and recollected themselves there (adoration, Our Father, Creed, invocation of Mary)^[46];
• performed works of mercy and penance: spending ample time visiting people in need (the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly people, people with disabilities), practising fasting or abstinence, giving to the poor, engaging in voluntary service — practices which, according to the decree, “may be repeated” throughout the year, with the indulgence granted “each time”^[47].

The decree recalled that the Jubilee indulgence was “especially destined” for the departed, and even provided, through redoubled charity, for the possibility of applying two of them to the souls in purgatory on the same day: for the faithful who performed an act of charity for the souls in purgatory and received Communion a second time on the same day, during a Eucharistic celebration — applicable to the departed alone^[48].

The sick and those unable to travel

Finally — and this is a constant trait of the Church's mercy — those who could not travel (cloistered nuns and monks, the elderly, the sick, prisoners, carers detained in hospital) gained the same indulgence by uniting themselves spiritually to the celebrations, by reciting at home the Our Father, the Creed and other prayers, and “by offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives”^[49]. The plenary grace was refused to no one: suffering offered up stood in place of the pilgrimage.

The most decisive moment receives a special grace. The Church grants a plenary indulgence to the faithful in danger of death, at the point of death (in articulo mortis)^[50].

The apostolic blessing

The priest who administers the last sacraments is empowered to give the dying person the apostolic blessing with a plenary indulgence^[51]. This indulgence can be gained even if the faithful has already gained another plenary indulgence on the same day^[52] — a unique exception to the one-plenary-per-day rule, a sign of the price the Church sets on the passage into eternity.

Without a priest: the crucifix and desire

An admirable detail of the Church's solicitude: if no priest is available, the Church herself supplies. She grants the plenary indulgence to the dying Christian who is “well disposed” and who, in the course of life, was in the habit of praying — provided he has at least the intention of receiving it. In that case, the use of a crucifix or cross is recommended^[53]. What is required is not a performance, but a heart turned towards God at the last instant. The mercy that has sustained the whole doctrine of indulgences bursts forth here: to the very threshold of death, the Church wants to throw wide open the gates of Heaven.

Three questions come up often. They deserve to be treated frankly.

“Isn't that too good, too easy, to be true?”

At first glance, the plenary indulgence can seem “cheap”: a few prayers, a church visit, and the whole punishment wiped away? In reality, the condition of detachment from all sin, even venial, is so demanding that it rules out all easiness. What is asked is not to perform a rite, but to have a truly converted heart, with no complacency towards evil. Far from being “easy,” a fully gained plenary indulgence presupposes a summit of the spiritual life. The gesture is simple; the disposition, demanding.

“How can I know whether I really gained it?”

One cannot know with certainty — and that is deliberate. The Church issues no “receipt.” Detachment of heart belongs to the secret between the soul and God. This uncertainty is not a flaw: it is a pedagogy. It forbids presumption (“my account is settled”), urges one to begin again with fervour, and entrusts all to the mercy of God, who never lets Himself be outdone in generosity. The faithful do what depends on them; the rest, they abandon to the goodness of the Father.

All scrupulosity must be set aside here. Endlessly doubting one's detachment, redoing acts out of anguish, tormenting oneself at not being sure: none of that comes from God. The right attitude is that of the trusting child who gives his heart as best he can and entrusts himself to the Father. What God looks at is the love of the heart, not a score to be reached.

“Isn't counting punishments petty?”

The objection supposes the indulgence were a cold bookkeeping. It is the reverse. The logic of temporal punishment is not that of a tribunal exacting its due, but that of a healing: sin leaves wounds, and God's love wills to scar them over completely^[54]. A plenary indulgence is not a “point” scored, but health restored to the soul. And because this health can be offered to the departed, it is also the most disinterested of acts: praying, fasting, giving alms for another whom one will no longer see on earth. There is nothing petty in charity that extends as far as purgatory.

The plenary indulgence is not an embarrassing survival, but one of the finest compendia of the Catholic faith: it articulates forgiveness (which remits guilt), healing (which repairs punishment), the communion of saints (which circulates spiritual goods), the authority received from Christ (the power of the keys), and the mercy of God (which reaches to the point of death). Properly understood, it invites one not to keep accounts, but to convert, to pray and to love — for oneself and for the departed whom one entrusts to God.

Related articles on Ignispedia:

• What Is an Indulgence? — the catechetical definition: guilt and punishment, the treasury of the Church, the image of the nail and the board.
• Indulgences — the complete dossier: history, the myth of “buying,” Tetzel, Luther and the 95 Theses, Protestant objections.
• What is the communion of saints? — the solidarity that makes applying indulgences to the departed possible.
• Purgatory and What does the Church say about purgatory? — the purification of temporal punishment after death.
• Why pray for the dead? — charity towards souls on the way to purification.
• How to make a good confession? — the sacrament that forgives guilt, prior to every indulgence.
• Why go on pilgrimages? — pilgrimage, the traditional condition of the Jubilee indulgence.

Principal sources

• Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 1471–1479 and §§ 1030–1032 (official text on vatican.va).
• Paul VI, apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum doctrina, 1 January 1967, with its Norms.
• Apostolic Penitentiary, Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th typical edition, 1999.
• Code of Canon Law (1983), canons 992 to 997.
• Apostolic Penitentiary, Note on the plenary indulgence granted during the Ordinary Jubilee of the year 2025, 13 May 2024.
• Francis, bull of indiction of the 2025 Jubilee Spes non confundit, 9 May 2024.