Asking EWTN about ‘Profligate’ Indulgences

Called to Communion - May 13th, 2025 - with Dr. David Anders

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(10:50) 15:35 – 17:15 (17:35)

Yah so my question is, in the time of the Popes squaring off against the kings there were a lot of excommunications, indulgences, annulments swung around... um… or not given, and some times for political reasons or for personal gain and that kind of thing. And so I wonder what you kind of make of that? Because, I mean, these have immense spiritual ramifications and, I guess, do we consider some of those to have been invalid? Especially as it relates to the early protestant criticisms or concerns about the church. Thank you.

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Now you talked about this being, sort of, profligate use of excommunications, and you threw in indulgences and annulments. Um, and I’m not sure why except that these are legal decisions by the Church. As to whether indulgences were thrown around profligately, I don’t think indulgences were thrown around profligately. I think that indulgences could be abused. They were abused in the reformation era. The origin of indulgences is actually from the laity, it’s not from the hierarchy. It was the laity that appealed to the church for the blessing of indulgences and the church agreed with the spiritual logic of it. And so you would substitute a greater penance, you know, with a lesser penance. Well one of the traditional penances that people preform is to give alms. Well, you see, and thats innocuous. That’s actually meritorious. Jesus says if you give alms in secret your Father who sees you in secret will reward you, so there’s nothing wrong with giving alms. It’s good to give alms.

Yeah.

But if you’re the person who is, you know, remitting the temporal punishment due to sin and you direct where the alms are meant to go, well, the possibility of abuse creeps in.

Sure.

Pretty obviously, and that’s what happened in the 16th century and that, you know, the occasioned Luthers 95-Thesis, and the church has rectified that and said we don’t do that part of it anymore. But as far as, you know, the spiritual efficacy of indulgences, I don’t think they were affected. Alright, you know, just because someone… just because the authority misuses it for his own gain doesn’t mean that the penitent isn’t actually gaining the actual, legitimate indulgence.

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Topics discussed:

2:00 – Important of Existence

4:55 – Disciples at the Last Supper

4:45 – Jesus-Only Baptisms

6:10 – Apostle’s Tribes

(10:50) - (17:35) – Past Church Behaviors

17:48 – Mormon-and-Catholic Marriage

19:40 – “American” Pope and Relics

24:25 – Mormon Baptisms

29:00 – Attending Non-denominational Baptism

31:45 – Augustine and Aquinas and Calvinism

42:10 – Why Social Doctrine

47:05 – Non-denominational Baptism Scandal

51:10 – Marriage when returning to the Church

52:46 – Wafers and Eucharistic Wine