The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-12-19
nOn-gatboIlt Queries, and Hnswer$ Cbereto

will remember how Cardinal Newman nailed the
calumny with regard to the catalogue of sins fast
ened on the door of the Church of st. Gudules,
Brussels ("Present Position of Catholics" PIP. 10S-
11S). The catalogue written in French, turned out
after investigation to be the price paid not for sins
but for the use of chairs. And yet Catholic law
yer had but lately to correct the calumny re-
peated by correspondent of Chicago daily with
regard to South American bishop granting an IN
diligence to commit sim So persistent is the un-
thinking or malicious disregarding OF the eighth
commandment
Catholics know that an indulgence is in no sense
whatever the remission of SINS past, present fu-
ture nor does it do away with the eternal punish
ment due to sin. The most elemental concept of
God renders it impossible to imagine Him giving
person permission to commit sin. If our obJector
would take the trouble to read any catechism of
our Church he would find it clearly stated, that un-
less Catholic is free from mortal sin and in Gods
grace and friendship he cannot in the slightest de-
gree gain an indulgence Baltimore Catechism,"
lesson xxi questions 1 and y
An indulgence is the remission by the Church
of the whole or part of the temporal punishment
due to sim valid before God because of the divine
authority Christ gave His Church (Matt. xvi, 19;
xviii 49,. 1t is gained only by one in a state of
grace in virtue of the application of the SUPER
abundant merits of Christ and His saints to all of
the Communion of Saints.
Thus in the first days of Christianity, the
Church imposed upon repentant sinners severe pub
lie penances such as exclusion from the church
service, denial of the Eucharist, fasting on bread
and water for a term of years. for the grievous
crimes of murder, apostasy, surrendering the BIZ
bic to the pagan prosecutors, and the like. we
read however that frequently the bishops remltted,
wholly or partially, these penitential works, if
penitent manifested extraordinary sorrow, if per-
secution was imminent If one of the martyrs about
to die requested it, if the penitent was unable to
undergo the penance because of bodily infrmities,
or if death were imminent. This is essentially the
Catholic doctrine of indulgences today
From the eighth century this public penitential
discipline was gradually done away with, until it
disappeared in the thirteenth century. Penitents
who manifested sincere sorrow absolved be-
fore the penance enjoined was performed. The Sc
we're public penances were commuted into prayers,
almsgiving to churches, monasteries and hospitals,
pilgrmages taking the cross to free Christ's sepu
chre from the Saracen Council of Clermort A. D.
1923, can. 3, making the Jubilee CA. d. 1900,
etc
This divine power exercised by the Catholic
church with regard to the temporal punishment de-
creed by divine law to the sinner is somewhat akin
to the power which every well-ordered State exer-
cises for the common good of society, by remittng
wholly or In part the punishment decreed by the
civil law to the criminal. Thus our President, or
governor, has in certain the right to grant
complete pardon to criminals by law condemned to
life Imprisonment And in every prison we find
the State renting part of a criminals sentence
for good behavior
Just as the State possesses the right to condemn
or acquit the criminal, and to regulate in every
wax the punishment due his crime, the Cath
olic church possesses the divine right to pardon
or retain it (John ky and to remit wholly or in
part the punishment it deserves in the sight of
God Matt xvi, 10; xviii, 1s), all according to the
penitent's interior dispositions toward God Oe-
picier "Indulgences'; Thurston, "The Holy Year.;
Bellamin, "De Indulgentiis'' Beringer, 'Indulg-
ences.')