What Is an Indulgence?

The official text must be our starting point. The Catechism of the Catholic Church reproduces the definition given by Paul VI in 1967:

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1471^[6]

The Code of Canon Law gives the same definition, showing that this is the Church’s stable and official teaching^[7]. This dense sentence contains the whole doctrine. It can be unfolded into four claims.

“The remission… of punishment”

An indulgence remits a punishment, meaning a debt of reparation—not the guilt itself. This is the most important distinction in the entire article and the source of nearly every misunderstanding. We will examine it closely in the next section. For now, remember one formula: an indulgence does not forgive; it frees. Forgiveness has already been received before the indulgence comes into play.

“…temporal”

The punishment in question is temporal: it is limited and purifying, unlike the eternal punishment of damnation. The forgiveness of grave sin has already removed eternal punishment; what remains belongs to the order of healing, not condemnation^[8]. This purification can take place on earth or, after death, in purgatory.

“…due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven”

An indulgence presupposes forgiveness. One cannot gain an indulgence for an unconfessed sin: one must first be restored to friendship with God, ordinarily through sacramental confession, and only then does the indulgence act upon what remains after forgiveness. This is why speaking of “buying forgiveness” makes no sense: forgiveness is never for sale, and an indulgence does not confer forgiveness.

“…through the action of the Church”

Finally, an indulgence is not a magical result automatically attached to an act. It is an act of the Church, which “dispenses and applies with authority” the treasury of Redemption under conditions that she determines. We will see below where this authority comes from and why it is not arbitrary.

This is the real difficulty and the objection everyone eventually raises: if God has forgiven me, why should there be anything left to “pay”? The answer rests on a distinction that ordinary human experience understands perfectly well, even though theological vocabulary can make it seem obscure.

The twofold consequence of sin: guilt and punishment

The Catechism states the principle:

“Sin has a double consequence. Grave sin deprives us of communion with God and therefore makes us incapable of eternal life […]. On the other hand every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1472^[9]

Every sin therefore involves two realities: guilt (the rupture with God and personal culpability) and a wound (the disorder left in the soul and the world, and the unhealthy attachment to created things). Forgiveness removes the first immediately. The second requires healing, which is not automatic.

A simple image: the nail and the board

The classic image is a nail driven into a wooden board. Asking for and receiving forgiveness is like removing the nail: the guilt is taken away completely, without remainder. But the hole remains in the wood. Temporal punishment is like that hole: the trace, damage, and distortion left by sin, which must now be repaired and healed.

Another image, reported by the apologist Matthieu Lavagna following Bishop Jacques Perrier for the Jubilee of the year 2000, is that of a fire: a burning building must first be extinguished—that is forgiveness, which stops the destruction—but after the fire has passed, the flooded site still has to be cleaned up, the damage repaired, and what was lost or damaged bought back^[10]. Forgiveness restores the relationship; it does not magically erase every consequence.

A distinction already present in the Bible

This logic is not a medieval invention. Scripture shows it at work. When David repents of his sin, the prophet Nathan immediately tells him: “The LORD has taken away your sin; you shall not die”—his guilt is remitted at once. Yet, in the same statement, a temporal consequence remains: the child born from the sin will die^[11]. The forgiveness is complete; a punishment remains.

“The LORD has taken away your sin; you shall not die. Yet, because by this deed you have scorned the LORD, the son that is born to you shall die.” — 2 Samuel 12:13–14^[12]

Likewise, the Good Thief is forgiven and receives the promise of paradise “today,” yet he completes his punishment on the cross and accepts it: “And indeed, for us it is just: after what we have done, we are getting what we deserve”^[13]. Forgiveness did not remove the cross; it transformed the cross into a path of salvation.

Eternal punishment and temporal punishment

The Catechism clarifies the status of this remaining punishment so that it is not mistaken for a threat:

“The forgiveness of sin and restoration of communion with God entail the remission of the eternal punishment of sin, but temporal punishment of sin remains. […] These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 1472–1473^[14]

In other words, temporal punishment is not an additional penalty imposed by a vindictive God. It is the natural scar left by sin, what still needs to be healed once guilt has been forgiven. An indulgence is precisely one of the means by which the Church, drawing on the merits of Christ, hastens and completes that healing.

The underlying question remains: by what right does the Church remit punishment before God? The answer rests on two pillars: a power received from Christ and a “treasury” upon which that power draws.

The power to “bind and loose”

Christ entrusted his Church with real authority over forgiveness and its consequences. To Peter: “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven: whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven”^[15]. To the Apostles: “Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them”^[16]. An indulgence is one application of this power of the keys: if the Church can remit guilt through absolution, she can a fortiori remit, by an act of authority, the punishment that remains^[17].

“An indulgence is obtained through the Church who, by virtue of the power of binding and loosing granted her by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of individual Christians and opens for them the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercies the remission of the temporal punishments due for their sins.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1478^[18]

The “treasury of the Church”

What the Church draws upon is not a chest of money, but a spiritual treasury: the infinite value of Christ’s satisfaction and merits, joined by the superabundant merits of the Virgin Mary and the saints^[19]. The Catechism defines it vividly:

“We also call these spiritual goods of the communion of saints the Church's treasury, which is ‘not the sum total of the material goods which have accumulated during the course of the centuries. On the contrary the “treasury of the Church” is the infinite value, which can never be exhausted, which Christ's merits have before God. They were offered so that the whole of mankind could be set free from sin and attain communion with the Father.’” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1476^[20]

The first solemn definition of this treasury goes back to the bull Unigenitus Dei Filius issued by Clement VI in 1343. It speaks of a treasury “acquired for the Church militant” and entrusted to Peter to be dispensed to the faithful^[21]. This is not an accumulation of spiritual “points” functioning like currency. It is the one merit of Christ, communicated to the members of his Body.

The communion of saints

This sharing is possible because Christians form one body. This is the doctrine of the communion of saints: spiritual goods circulate among the members of the Church—those on earth, those in purgatory, and those in heaven. The good accomplished by one benefits all^[22]. An indulgence is the most concrete expression of this supernatural solidarity: through it, the merits of Christ and the saints are applied to the person in need, living or dead. For more on this point, see What Is the Communion of Saints?.

An indulgence has two forms, depending on how much punishment is remitted^[23].

• A partial indulgence remits part of the temporal punishment;
• A plenary indulgence remits it entirely: a soul that died immediately after gaining one would go directly to heaven, without purgatory.

The table below summarizes the distinction.

The end of reckoning indulgences in “days” (1967)

Before Paul VI’s reform, partial indulgences were measured in confusing units: “100 days,” “7 years” of indulgence. These figures obviously did not mean “100 fewer days in purgatory”—purgatory is not a countdown. They referred instead to the ancient public penance of the early Church: the indulgence was worth as much as a penance of that number of days. To prevent this misunderstanding, Indulgentiarum doctrina abolished all numerical reckoning. A partial indulgence would henceforth be designated “only by the words ‘partial indulgence,’ without any determination of days or years”^[26]. Its measure now depends upon the fervor of the faithful and the worthiness of the work performed.

The detailed rules for plenary indulgences—the works to which they are attached, Jubilees, and practical difficulties—are treated in the related article What Does the Church Say About Plenary Indulgences?.

This is the most practical aspect and the one people most often seek. Everything is codified in the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, the official handbook published by the Apostolic Penitentiary (fourth typical edition, 1999)^[27]. Church law also sets preliminary requirements: to be capable of gaining an indulgence, a person must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least at the completion of the prescribed works, and must have at least the general intention of gaining it^[28].

The conditions for a plenary indulgence

To gain a plenary indulgence, one must perform the prescribed indulgenced work and fulfill three customary conditions, all crowned by one decisive interior disposition^[29]:

1. Sacramental confession — to be in the state of grace;
2. Eucharistic Communion — preferably on the same day as the work;
3. Prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff — one Our Father and one Hail Mary are sufficient;
4. Detachment from every sin, even venial sin — the most demanding condition (see below).

One confession can suffice for several plenary indulgences, but a distinct act of Communion and prayer is required for each one. The three conditions may be fulfilled “several days before or after” the performance of the prescribed work^[30].

The decisive condition: detachment from every sin

The difficulty is not administrative but spiritual. A plenary indulgence requires “the exclusion of all attachment to sin, even venial sin.” Yet detachment from every venial sin—including the small faults we are fond of and unwilling to renounce—is rare. This is why many theologians believe that fewer plenary indulgences are actually gained than one might imagine: if detachment is not complete, the indulgence is only partial^[31]. This requirement reveals the true nature of an indulgence. It is not a legal sleight of hand, but the fruit of a real conversion of heart—what Paul VI calls metanoia^[32].

Only one plenary indulgence a day—and for whom?

Only one plenary indulgence per day may be gained^[33] (except at the point of death, when a special indulgence is provided for the dying person). Partial indulgences may be gained several times a day.

Above all, an indulgence can be applied in only two ways: to oneself, or to someone who has died by way of suffrage^[34]. It cannot be gained for another living person. This detail is revealing: an indulgence is not a transfer of “credit” that can be given to whomever one chooses. It is a personal act of conversion, whose subsequent fruit alone can be charitably offered to a soul in purgatory that can no longer merit for itself.

“Since the faithful departed now being purified are also members of the same communion of saints, one way we can help them is to obtain indulgences for them, so that the temporal punishments due for their sins may be remitted.” — Catechism of the Catholic Church, § 1479^[35]

Some common indulgenced works

The Enchiridion attaches indulgences to many acts of piety and charity. Its 1967 reform reduced the formerly extensive lists in favor of four general grants covering the whole Christian life: raising one’s heart to God while fulfilling one’s duties; placing oneself at the service of one’s neighbor in a spirit of faith; voluntarily giving up something permissible in a spirit of penance; and openly bearing witness to one’s faith^[36]. These are joined by specific works carrying a plenary indulgence under the usual conditions, including:

• reading Sacred Scripture for at least half an hour;
• adoration of the Blessed Sacrament for at least half an hour;
• the Way of the Cross;
• recitation of the Rosary in a church, with one’s family, or in a community;
• visiting a church on the day of the Portiuncula (August 2) or during a Jubilee^[37].

Many simple acts—saying “My Jesus, mercy” with devotion, making the sign of the cross, or visiting the Blessed Sacrament—carry a partial indulgence. The spirit of the reform is clear: an indulgence is linked not to counted gestures but to a life of prayer, penance, and charity.

Three misunderstandings recur constantly. They are worth dispelling clearly.

It is not the forgiveness of sin

An indulgence forgives no sin and never replaces confession. It presupposes that the sin has already been forgiven. To confuse the two is to confuse the healing of the wound with reconciliation itself. The sacrament of penance grants forgiveness; an indulgence comes afterward.

It is not permission to sin

An indulgence grants no license for the future: it concerns only past and forgiven sins. In fact, it requires the opposite of laxity—an effective detachment from sin. One cannot “gain an indulgence in advance” for a sin one intends to commit. The idea is self-contradictory.

It is not—and never has been—something purchased

Money cannot buy an indulgence. Historically, giving alms could form part of an indulgenced work of charity—but the work was the act of charity, not a payment, and any commercial trafficking in indulgences is simony, a grave sin condemned since the Acts of the Apostles^[38]. The Council of Trent ordered the complete abolition of “all evil gains for obtaining them” (pravos quaestus omnes pro his consequendis [...] omnino abolendos esse)^[39]. The historical scandal—the preacher Tetzel and his slogan, which provoked Luther’s reaction in 1517—was an abuse in preaching, condemned by the Church herself, not the doctrine. A little-known fact is that Luther, in his 95 Theses, did not call for indulgences to be abolished but defended “the truth of apostolic indulgences” (thesis 71)^[40]. This entire historical dossier is developed in Indulgences.

The practice of indulgences is the result of a long development. Its main milestones are summarized below. The details—and the answer to objections—can be found in the master dossier Indulgences.

Far from being a late corruption, the indulgence continues the Church’s oldest penitential discipline—the redemptiones, or commutations of penance, attested from the early Middle Ages^[43]—purified of its excesses over the centuries. The Second Vatican Council did not abolish indulgences. It called for their reform, which Paul VI carried out^[44].

An indulgence is not an embarrassing relic of the Middle Ages. It is the concrete expression of three central truths of the faith: forgiveness does not magically remove every consequence of sin; Christians form one body in which spiritual goods are shared (the communion of saints); and the Church has received from Christ real authority over the salvation of her members. Properly understood, an indulgence is an invitation to conversion, prayer, and charity—including charity toward the dead in purgatory, whom the faithful can help, for the Church “also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead”^[45].

Related articles on Ignispedia:

• Indulgences — the complete dossier: history, the myth of “selling” indulgences, Luther and the 95 Theses, and answers to Protestant objections.
• What Does the Church Say About Plenary Indulgences? — the rules for plenary indulgences in detail.
• Purgatory and What Does the Church Say About Purgatory? — temporal punishment after death.
• Why Pray for the Dead? — solidarity with souls undergoing purification.
• How to Make a Good Confession — the sacrament that forgives guilt, a prerequisite for every indulgence.

Main sources

• Catechism of the Catholic Church, §§ 1471–1479 (official text on vatican.va).
• Paul VI, apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum doctrina, January 1, 1967, with its Norms.
• Apostolic Penitentiary, Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, fourth typical edition, 1999.
• Code of Canon Law (1983), canons 992–997.
• Council of Trent, session XXV, Decretum de indulgentiis, December 3–4, 1563.