Posted on 07/09/2013 10:22:45 AM PDT by Alex Murphy
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- To help encourage prayers for a spiritually fruitful World Youth Day in Rio de Janeiro, the Vatican announced July 9 that Pope Francis authorized a special indulgence for those who attend the event's liturgies and prayer services or follow along online in the proper spirit of prayer and contrition.
Pope Francis decreed that World Youth Day participants can receive one plenary, or full, indulgence a day if they meet the usual conditions. World Youth Day runs July 23-28; the pope arrives July 22.
An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a person is due for sins that have been forgiven.
The conditions necessary for receiving a plenary indulgence include having recently gone to confession, receiving the Eucharist and offering prayers for the intentions of the pope. The faithful must also carry the proper spirit of being "truly repentant and contrite" and participate in the gathering's sacred events and "pious exercises" with prayerful devotion.
Those who are "legitimately prevented" from being physically present in Rio may also obtain the indulgence as long as they meet the same prayerful and "spiritual and sacramental conditions" as well as participate "in spirit" in the sacred liturgies and prayer services via television, radio or "new means of social communication," the decree said.
The decree, signed by Cardinal Manuel Monteiro de Castro, head of the Vatican office that deals with indulgences, said a partial indulgence is also available to all Catholics who, no matter where they are, offer prayers with the pope for young Catholics.
"With a contrite spirit, they will elevate fervent prayers to God, concluding with the official World Youth Day prayer" as well as prayers to the patroness of Brazil, Our Lady of Aparecida, and other saints, asking that they intercede on behalf of all young people to be "strengthened in the faith and live a holy life," it said.
The cardinal also asked priests around the world to make themselves available to hear the confessions of those who want the indulgence and to encourage public prayers for the success of World Youth Day.
The pope is set to hear the confessions of some of the young pilgrims in Rio's Quinta da Boa Vista Park July 26.
Oh, if only I were as devout as you say! It's been six weeks for me, and if I don't go tomorrow I will feel I've got a terrible back-inventory to account for.
You might more accurately have asked, "Why do really devout, holy Catholics --- for instance, many of the canonized saints --- go to Confession every week????"
I suppose for the same reason I wash my dishes on a fairly regular basis, launder my clothes, and weed my garden: because these things call for constant maintenance.
When I was a know-it-all quasi-Catholic-pagan at age 18, 20, 22 (i.e. back in the Jurassic) I went for, as I remember, years without Confession, though my sins were as Crayola Red. Now that I'm back in the fold, I find myself more and more aware of my faults.
Age does that.
Marriage, too... :o)
my understanding of confession is that one is supposed to confess your sins....the ones you committed since the last time you were at confession. Now if you have done your penance and truly repented then your behavior would have changed so why are you back at confession again????
Because Catholic theology holds that Christ's shed blood / forgiveness only covers past sins. They were forgiven last week, but then they sinned anew. They will need forgiveness again this week, else (should they die) they will die in their sins.
"When I was in first grade, the teacher told us that the President was married to the First Lady, and all I could think of was "Wow, I wonder if she ever saw any dinosaurs."
-- Steven Wright
I presume you, too, examine your conscience from time to time?
Or do you say you are without sin?
Oh no.
Oh no.
If you confess to a nicolaitan in a cage, you haven’t really confessed anything.
Confession (and repentance) has to be to Yehova to count.
Confession should be day by day, minute by minute if your heart is right. The catholic method keeps Yehova out of the loop, so that the nicolaitan in the cage can feel important.
>> “Go ahead and sin but feel bad about it later. lol” <<
.
But keep on sinning the same way!
>> “•Is it related to Catholic concept of purgatory?” <<
.
Yeshua called it “outer darkness,” and it is forever!
As the parable of the virgins makes plain, you are either ready when he returns in the clouds with his angels, or you are permanently out of luck.
Yes and Mathew 7:24 makes plain, it’s the relationship that’s key. He either knows you are he doesn’t.
Nicene Creed is not uniquely Catholic.
that prayer is important in many Protestant faiths as well. Indulgences, not so much.
but if one repents then one changes behavior and leads a different life....
never claimed to walk on water....but then I don’t go to a priest for confession either
agree with you on the larger point
Bp Fulton Sheen once said that hearing confessions in a convent is like being pelted to death with popcorn.
The Nicene Creed is Catholic. At the Council of Nicea it was decided upon to squelch many heresies, among them, gnosticism.
So you can say, “Thanks, Catholics!”
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