Do people still pay indulgences in the Catholic Church?

Answer 1

They still do by where I live and I hear people talking about it.

Extortion to get out of pergatory or hell...wonderful.

Answer 2

Pastor Billy says: as this is a question posted by an anti-Catholic it is not out of the ordinary that he has mispresented the norms of the Catholic Church. Do people still pay indulgences? It has never been the official teaching of the Catholic Church that people could pay for an indulgence.
see the following,

Myth 1: A person can buy his way out of hell with indulgences.

This is a common misunderstanding, one that anti-Catholic commentators take advantage of, relying on the ignorance of both Catholics and non-Catholics. But the charge is without foundation. Since indulgences remit only temporal penalties, they cannot remit the eternal penalty of hell. Once a person is in hell, no amount of indulgences will ever change that fact. The only way to avoid hell is by appealing to God's eternal mercy while still alive. After death, one's eternal fate is set (Heb. 9:27).

Myth 2: A person can buy indulgences for sins not yet committed.

The Church has always taught that indulgences do not apply to sins not yet committed. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes, "[An indulgence] is not a permission to commit sin, nor a pardon of future sin; neither could be granted by any power."

Myth 3: A person can "buy forgiveness" with indulgences.

The definition of indulgences presupposes that forgiveness has already taken place: "An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven" (Indulgentarium Doctrina norm 1). Indulgences in no way forgive sins. They deal only with punishments left after sins have been forgiven.

Myth 4: Indulgences were invented to money for the Church.

Indulgences developed from reflection on the sacrament of reconciliation. They are a way of shortening the penance of sacramental discipline and were in use centuries before money-related problems appeared.

Myth 5: An indulgence will shorten your time in purgatory by a fixed number of days.

The number of days which used to be attached to indulgences were references to the period of penance one might undergo during life on earth. The Catholic Church does not claim to know anything about how long or short purgatory is in general, much less in a specific person's case.

Myth 6: A person can buy indulgences.

The Council of Trent instituted severe reforms in the practice of granting indulgences, and, because of prior abuses, "in 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions" (Catholic Encyclopedia). This act proved the Church's seriousness about removing abuses from indulgences.

Myth 7: A person used to be able to buy indulgences.

One never could "buy" indulgences. The financial scandal around indulgences, the scandal that gave Martin Luther an excuse for his heterodoxy, involved alms-indulgences in which the giving of alms to some charitable fund or foundation was used as the occasion to grant the indulgence. There was no outright selling of indulgences. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: "[I]t is easy to see how abuses crept in. Among the good works which might be encouraged by being made the condition of an indulgence, almsgiving would naturally hold a conspicuous place. . . It is well to observe that in these purposes there is nothing essentially evil. To give money to God or to the poor is a praiseworthy act, and, when it is done from right motives, it will surely not go unrewarded."

Answer 3

The individual above claiming to be an "ex-Catholic" is wrong (and in all likelihood has never been a Catholic of any sort.)

The Council of Trent abolished the sale of indulgences nearly five hundred years ago. It has been illegal within the church to sell them ever since.

"In granting indulgences the Council desires that moderation be observed in accordance with the ancient approved custom of the Church, lest through excessive ease ecclesiastical discipline be weakened; and further, seeking to correct the abuses that have crept in . . . it decrees that all criminal gain therewith connected shall be entirely done away with as a source of grievous abuse among the Christian people; and as to other disorders arising from superstition, ignorance, irreverence, or any cause whatsoever--since these, on account of the widespread corruption, cannot be removed by special prohibitions--the Council lays upon each bishop the duty of finding out such abuses as exist in his own diocese, of bringing them before the next provincial synod, and of reporting them, with the assent of the other bishops, to the Roman Pontiff, by whose authority and prudence measures will be taken for the welfare of the Church at large, so that the benefit of indulgences may be bestowed on all the faithful by means at once pious, holy, and free from corruption." (On Indulgences, Council of Trent, December 4, 1563)

Answer 4

No, the practice was very limited and very wrong and was abolished by the Council of Trent, a group of Catholic priests who actually reformed the Church...which isn't what Martin Luther did at all -- he just left and started his own religion.

Indulgences are PRAYED for, not paid for.

Answer 5

The connection between indulgences and money was banned by the Council of Trent in the 16th century because of Tetzel's abuses and the greed of other "pardoners" and 'descent into the sin of simony"(Phillip Hughes,Popular History of the Reformation)

Even when charitable money donations had indulgences attached to them plenary indulgences needed sacramental confession,Communion and detachment from all sinful attachments.

indulgences deal with temporal punishments not eternal. Indulgences could never 'get one out of Hell" or be used as "fire insurance" the way many i know of"Once Saved Always Saved folk "use their Tetzel equivalent to escape from turning from mortal sin and buy entrance to Heaven by their 'being saved' by an unlived and unalive "faith" profession sometime in their life's history.

Answer 6

They are not paid for.

The historical stain on the term indulgences makes people think of them as a payment to the Church that paves our way to heaven. This was a very real abuse of the practice of indulgences that Martin Luther and other protestors (many who did not separate with the Church but worked from within the Church to make the change) were right to protest. However, the historical abuse of indulgences does not remove the validity of the use of indulgences in the Church. Indulgences are simply spiritual practices that are designed to train our hearts to unite ourselves to God and to the Church. These practices are efficacious (I love that term) in giving us extra grace to form our hearts to love and to erase our temporal punishment for sin.

Why do they give us more grace? This is the point that many of our Protestant and Evangelical friends will have trouble with. The truth is that every spiritual exercise (prayer, devotion, sacrifice, suffering, etc.) can be a path to grace thanks to God's mercy. However, Christ made the apostles, and therefore the Church, the stewards of grace that comes from Christ: "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven. Whatever you loosen on earth will be loosened in heaven.  Therefore, the Church has the ability to determine specific spiritual exercises to be especially efficacious in giving us grace.

Receiving these graces is very easy. The acts of indulgence are all explained in a little book called the Handbook of Indulgences. To receive the indulgence, one needs to:

Go to the sacrament of Reconciliation (to gain forgiveness for your sins)
Receive the Holy Eucharist (to be intimately united to Christ, the source of all grace)
Pray the Creed (to reaffirm your faith in all that God has revealed about Himself)
Pray for the intentions of the Pope (to unite yourself to the Church)
Have no attraction to sin (while this phrase is a bit vague, in moral theology it typically means that you have fully chosen to renounce sin through an act of the will - even if your sense appetite is still attracted to it)
Perform the act prescribed by the Church (the act is usually an act of prayer or devotion done in unity with the Church - for example, praying the Rosary in a Church building, going on a pilgrimage to a designated Church or cathedral)

Answer 7

Nope. It fell by the wayside many, many moons ago.

Answer 8

I'm EX catholic, yes they do still and pay indulgences and light candles to retrive souls in Purgatory. I ran from them years ago because of Unethical practices.

Answer 9

Not that I've seen.

Answer 10

I don't think so but I could be wrong.