FAQ of Faith: Indulgences

I have been working on my last final for my Catholic Theological Tradition course. One of the topics I am writing on is Martin Luther. As I was writing, I remembered that I had started a post on indulgences over a year ago. So here's an updated version of the post.

According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "an indulgence is the extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment due, in God's justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the Church in the exercise of the power of the keys, through the application of the superabundant merits of Christ and of the saints, and for some just and reasonable motive."

Rather than attempt to paraphrase more qualified minds on the subject, I will simply list the links below. The first is a very good summary by the USCCB that can be used for a handout at a formation session.

Resources:
Handout from Meeting

Primer on Indulgences

Myths about Indulgences

Recommended Book:

Handbook of Indulgences