The Pope has recently spoken about indulgences. How do you understand this? (Part 8)
In the previous parts of this series, we discussed many concepts taught by the Roman Catholic church, related to their doctrine of indulgences. We saw that indulgences are required, according to Catholic tradition and theology, to ensure that help and assistance is given in Purgatory (a place that doesn’t exist and has no validity from Scripture), so that humans can go to Heaven (which Scripture clearly shows is not the place for the dead, nor is Hell, as commonly understood in orthodox Christianity!) We also pointed out that the idea of indulgences applies in different ways: It addresses those who are in “Purgatory” and for whom prayers and “indulgences” are given by the living or the “saints in Heaven”, so that they can be freed from Purgatory; and it can apply to people in this life who give indulgences (for themselves and others) so that they do not have to suffer in Purgatory (or Hell) for as long as they otherwise would have to.
We also discussed the concept of partial indulgences (removing part of the “temporal” punishment due to sin), and of plenary indulgences (removing all temporal punishment due to sin).
Let us look at a further explanation in the following…