This article bemused/amazed me greatly:
The Catholic Church is bringing back indulgences.
“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.”"And cash," he added, "buttloads of cash."
You cannot buy one — the church outlawed the sale of indulgences in 1857 — but charitable contributions, combined with other acts, can help you earn one.Well, ok, not cash. But all of the things that cash can buy.
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.I love how absolutely no construct of man can escape red tape, bureaucracy, and loopholes.
There is a limit of one plenary indulgence per sinner per day.So act now! Supplies are limited! Indulgences at these low low prices can't last long. Indulge before noon tomorrow, and get two weeks off Purgatory for the price of one!
Among liberal Catholic theologians, the return of the indulgence seems to be more of a curiosity than a cause for alarm. “Personally, I think we’re beyond the time when indulgences mean very much,” said the Rev. Richard P. McBrien, a professor of theology at the University of Notre Dame who supports the ordination of women and the right of priests to marry.Sure sucks for those poor bastards who paid so much money to the church before 1857.
I don't know, depends on how many years you get for lustful thoughts. At that age, they were probably just barely treading water, Purgatory-time-wise.Octavia Andrade, 64, a retired secretary, laughed as she recalled a time when children would race through the rosary repeatedly to get as many indulgences as they could — usually in increments of 5 or 10 years — “as if we needed them, then.”
I can't possibly see how that could be a bad thing. I hear the Inquisition involved quite a lot of fervor. I wonder where the Crusades fall on the ferver-o-meter.Still, she supports their reintroduction. “Anything old coming back, I’m in favor of it,” she said. “More fervor is a good thing.”
"I mean, I’m not saying it is necessarily wrong,” she said. “But I had always figured theywere going to let this fade into the background, to be honest. What does it mean to get ‘time off’ in Purgatory? What is ‘five years’ in terms of eternity?”Kind of depends on what's playing on the TV in reception, doesn't it?