I think you’re looking for the term ‘indulgence’. Indulgences themselves do not forgive sins. In the teaching of the Catholic Church, an indulgence is ‘a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for sins’. Catholics believe that while your sins are forgiven through the sacrament of confession, one also had to undergo temporal punishment. Gaining indulgences is one way to reduce that punishment that one has to undergo for the sins that have already been forgiven.
Think about it as such: you’ve broken your mom’s expensive vase. You have confessed to her and she has forgiven you for it. However, she now expects you to come up with a repayment plan to ‘repay’ the cost of the vase. Punishment and forgiveness are two different things. Indulgences is no way to forgive sins.
The Church explains, “An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain defined conditions through the Church’s help when, as a minister of redemption, she dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ and the saints” (Indulgentarium Doctrina 1).
According to Catholic answers,
‘To gain any indulgence you must be a Catholic in order to be under the Church’s jurisdiction, and you must be in a state of grace because apart from God’s grace none of your actions are fundamentally pleasing to God (meritorious). You also must have at least the habitual intention of gaining an indulgence by the act performed.
To gain a partial indulgence, you must perform with a contrite heart the act to which the indulgence is attached. To gain a plenary indulgence you must perform the act with a contrite heart, plus you must go to confession (one confession may suffice for several plenary indulgences), receive Holy Communion, and pray for the pope’s intentions. The final condition is that you must be free from all attachment to sin, including venial sin. If you attempt to receive a plenary indulgence, but are unable to meet the last condition, a partial indulgence is received instead’.
Below are indulgences listed in the Handbook of Indulgences (New York: Catholic Book Publishing, 1991):
- An act of spiritual communion, expressed in any devout formula whatsoever, is endowed with a partial indulgence.
- A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who devoutly spend time in mental prayer.
- A plenary indulgence is granted when the rosary is recited in a church or oratory or when it is recited in a family, a religious community, or a pious association. A partial indulgence is granted for its recitation in all other circumstances.
- A partial indulgence is granted the Christian faithful who read sacred Scripture with the veneration due God’s word and as a form of spiritual reading. The indulgence will be a plenary one when such reading is done for at least one-half hour [provided the other conditions are met].
- A partial indulgence is granted to the Christian faithful who devoutly sign themselves with the cross while saying the customary formula: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.”
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There are other points of view but I personally perform the idea of Universal Salvation where basically everything everyone has done will be forgiven in the end.
Why would God create and love flawed beings if he was not able to forgive and show mercy towards them?
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It takes a knowledge in Jesus the Christ as Savior and Lord, confess you’re a sinner unable to fix or save yourself, and Jesus’ sacrifice on the Cross atoned for your sins, and request Him to be your Savior and Lord. Do this and ALL your sins are forgiven. Outside of this, you are damned to eternal hellfire
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