Holy Year Extended

Wearing a white apron over his white robes, Pope Pius XI stood before a doorway in the portico of St. Peter's on Easter Monday. Chanting prayers, he grasped a golden trowel, pushed three gilded bricks in place, applied three pats of mortar to them. Thus did he formally close the "Holy Door" and bring to an end the "Holy Year of Human Redemption" celebrating the 1,900th anniversary of Christ's death (TIME, April 3, 1933). During the year 1,200,000 Pilgrims had come to Rome, gaining full jubilee indulgence for their sins by visiting Rome's four great basilicas. For the rest of the Catholic world the Pope last week announced that until next Easter the faithful at home may gain the same plenary indulgence. They must visit three local churches and a Cathedral picked by their Bishops, pray for "the return of all dissidents to the unity of the fold of Christ," make solemn reparation for "the injury done His Divine Majesty" by the Godless.

Many a non-Catholic has been perplexed by indulgences, believing that they afford an easy means of forgiveness of sin or pardon for future sin. According to Catholic doctrine, an indulgence is the remission in whole or in part of temporal punishment (in Purgatory) for sins whose guilt has already been forgiven. It may be a plenary indulgence, granted only by the Pope, remitting all punishment; or a partial indulgence releasing the sinner from a certain number of days or years of it. This method of reckoning indulgences is based on the Early Christian custom of expiating sins with public-penance which often lasted days and even years. Based upon Scripture, the theory of indulgence is that the "Treasury" of the Church, the superabundant merits of Christ and the Saints, may be placed at the penitent's disposal during his lifetime to help him pay the debt he will owe God at death. To gain access to this treasury he must first be in "a state of grace." having repented, confessed his sins and done penance (by prayers, fasting and alms). Such indulgence as he is accorded is operative not for any future sins but only for those already committed and genuinely repented. Certain indulgences may work to the benefit of souls still in Purgatory, a place of temporary suffering distinct from Hell, where unrepentant sinners abide forever.

First Pope to offer plenary indulgence was Urban II, who thereby encouraged men to join the Crusades. In medieval times a partial indulgence of 20,000 years could be had for a few prayers. Plain people often mistook the meaning of the grant, thought they were getting relief from guilt and punishment by a mere outward act. From the fact that they were willing to pay for indulgences arose the scandalous abuses against which Martin Luther thundered. Today indulgences may be gained in innumerable ways: attending newly-dedicated churches (50 to 200 days), giving alms to charitable orders, visiting certain shrines, performing novenas (nine days of prayer), employing crucifixes, chaplets and rosaries blessed by the Pope in various acts of piety (50 days to eternity).

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