tagged w/ protestant reformation
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The indulgence is among the less noticed and less disputed traditions to be restored. But with a thousand-year history and volumes of church law devoted to its intricacies, it is one of the most complicated to explain.
According to church teaching, even after sinners are absolved in the confessional and say their Our Fathers or Hail Marys as penance, they still face punishment after death, in Purgatory, before they can enter heaven. In exchange for certain prayers, devotions or pilgrimages in special years, a Catholic can receive an indulgence, which reduces or erases that punishment instantly, with no formal ceremony or sacrament.
The fact that many Catholics under 50 have never sought one, and never heard of indulgences except in high school European history (Martin Luther denounced the selling of them in 1517 while igniting the Protestant Reformation), simply makes their reintroduction more urgent among church leaders bent on restoring fading traditions of penance in what they see as a self-satisfied world.
“Why are we bringing it back?” asked Bishop Nicholas A. DiMarzio of Brooklyn, who has embraced the move. “Because there is sin in the world.”
Is this a good or bad idea on the Church's behalf? Indulgences were what brought a lot of corruption to the church, do you think it's a wise idea to bring these back? At one point, priests were selling chicken bones claiming them to be bones of Mary or a saint! You can't buy your way to heaven! I thought religions were suppose to encourage people to be good people, but this allows them to be bad people as long as they have enough money to buy their way into heaven!
With all of the corruption in our current world (IE a corrupted bush administration, greedy corporations, harsh social hierarchy, politics of fear...) and now you can buy your way into heaven...does it feel like we're moving backward in time?
another link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/time/20090223/us_time/08599188115200The indulgence is among the less noticed and less disputed traditions to be restored.... more
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