Woodward: Indulgences

Ever since the New York Times announced last week that the Catholic Church was "reintroducing" indulgences, and helpfully explained that an indulgence is something that "reduces purgatorial time by a certain number of days or years," I've been waiting -- and waiting -- for some prominent Church representative to step forward and point out that an indulgence does no such thing. But when a succinct and accurate explanation of indulgences finally did appear online, it came not from the Bishops' Conference or a noted theologian at one of the great Catholic universities, but from (mirabile dictu)....

...Slate Magazine!

Beginning with the central truth that purgatory must be understood without reference to place and time, Slate's "Explainer" -- Nina Shen Rastogi -- goes on to provide a perfectly clear explanation of those curious time-period labels that used to attach to partial indulgences. No such temporal values are assigned to indulgences any more, but (as Ms. Rastogi puts it):

"An older version of the Enchiridion, known as the Raccolta, did assign lengths of time for each indulgenced act. Reciting seven Gloria Patris and one Ave Maria in a single day, for example, would grant you "an indulgence of 100 days." That didn't mean, however, that the penitent would get 100 days knocked off his purgatorial stay. A 100-day indulgence just earns you the equivalent of 100 days of earthly penance. (In the early and medieval church, penances were extremely arduous; a sinner might be sentenced to years of nothing but bread and water or months of wearing sackcloth.)"

Now that wasn't so hard, was it? The New York Times story pre-emptively excuses itself by claiming that indulgences are "one of the most complicated [Catholic] traditions to explain." That's especially true, I suppose, if you're the New York Times.