So, you’re in religion class, and the “old hoary” topic of how to handle Middle Ages Indulgence Indiscretions comes up yet again. Oh the joy! Where do you begin? How do you pitch to classes with mixed Catholic, Protestant and Atheist students?
Well, here is my strong piece of advice. It’s a tried-and-true method passed on to me by an old Catholic priest who taught me some real Middle Ages Indulgence Indiscretions history and proper doctrinal context, and how to best counter the propaganda. God rest Father’s soul. He was a titan. May he rest in peace.
I have tinkered and improved elements, but the core remains the same. The dialogue generally goes like this. Just memorise it!
Teacher: First, I am going to define the word “Indulgences” as understood by the Catholic Church. This understanding was held before the time of Martin Luther, at the time of Luther, and after the time of Luther, until this present day. Does anyone know what is this general definition?
Students: No-one will usually be game to have a stab at this one and look like an idiot. Silence mostly.
Teacher: Well, an Indulgence is defined as the following: Write the definition slowly and clearly on your whiteboard – and have every student write it out in their notebooks for maximum retention. Make this definition stick !
An indulgence is either a Plenary [Full], or Partial [Part] remission of the temporal punishment due from already forgiven sin.
Read it out slowly, as you write it out, and verbally repeat remission and already, and clearly underline them. You can impart the Catholic Catechism reference if you wish.
Teacher: Note! Indulgences do NOT forgive sin. They never ever could. Only the Sacraments freely do that. Martin Luther was asked to correct his teaching that Indulgences forgave sins and he never did so. That’s heresy. Millions of people have been misled since, and have been taught errant understanding of Catholic Church doctrine.
Just remember if you are in Purgatory, you are already going to Heaven. It is just a question of when. The real question is the penance outstanding. You are going to confront an Infinite Almighty all-pure and all-holy God remember. Think your ready?
Students: Stunned looks generally speaking, and then you will see happy smiles on the faces of the Catholic children. Watching who similes at these moments, can be a pretty big tell for the future, for either good or ill. Look carefully around.
Teacher: So, what are Indulgences. Well, they are just a form of Penance. They are Penances. An indulgence can constitute a prayer, physical activity, say fasting, or a charitable work, and yes, even donating money is a charitable act. You donate money all the time to others in society. We still do this today in the Church as well. I give a donation of say $10-20 to a priest, so a Mass can be said for the deceased souls of my Mum and Dad, so they are not suffering in Purgatory; and the priest can eat and pay his bills as well. Why wouldn’t I do this as a charitable act? I donate for Church buildings. My donations helped build schools, hospitals and churches, so what! We all still do that but never think of them as Indulgences, when they are in fact exactly that.
Teacher: So, the problem in the Middle Ages is not the doctrine of Indulgences. The problem was the abuse of that doctrine. It’s a question of justice. People abuse Catholic doctrine all the time. They still do so today. Indulgences are all about Justice. In fact, Indulgences form the basis of our Modern Legal System. Remember the phrase “temporal punishment”.
Teacher: Pick a tough-skinned boy or girl who likes cars. Look at little Johnny over there, for example. Johnny just bought himself a “hot” supercar and is burning down the highway at 200km hour, [class sometimes laughs] and police give chase. What happens to Johnny? He does the crime, so he pays a …. Let it hang. They might answer it. “He pays a fine”. What about if Johnny is also held in the jailhouse, and someone has to pay his bail and take his punishment on themselves. They buy his freedom from incarceration in other words. Sound familiar for purgatory?
The issue is though, you do not pay a million dollars for a speeding ticket, and you do not pay one dollar to release a known murderer on bail. That would be unjust! Was that happening in the Middle Ages for Indulgences? Perhaps, but that does not make the doctrine of Indulgences wrong, as Martin Luther said it did.
In fact, what happened on the Crucifix? Jesus gave us a Divine Indulgence by taking the infinite punishment of all mankind’s sin upon Himself in order to allow us the opportunity to reach Heaven if we wanted. Getting rid of the doctrine of indulgences would undermine the very act of redemption itself. How Satanic is that!
Trust me, you generally will not get many questions after you finish this explanation.