Pope offering indulgences for attending anti-abortion march
Pope Francis is offering an indulgence— a centuries-old practice involving the cancellation of certain spiritual debts — to any Catholic who attends the annual antiabortion March for Life in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 19, and who participates in related acts of piety.
This is believed to be the first timein the 45-year history of the annual march that a pope has offered an indulgence to participants, according to the Archdiocese of Washington. In peak years the march has drawn hundreds of thousands of attendees, many but notall of them Catholics.
The march is held on the National Mall each year to mark the anniversary of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion. This year’s march comes at a time of political strength for abortion opponents, with allies in the Trump administration and a newly seated conservative Supreme Court justice in Neil Gorsuch.
Pope Francis is offering a “plenary” or full indulgence for participants who are “truly penitential
and compelled by charity,” according to an announcement by Cardinal Donald Wuerl of Washington and Bishop Michael Burbidge of neighboring Arlington, Va. The two bishops oversee the places that will host Catholic activities related to the March for Life.
Indulgences are especially associated with medieval piety. Outrage over their sale sparked the 16th century Reformation and an enduring split between Catholics and Protestants. Though no longer for sale, indulgences have remained in practice in modern times. Pope Francis offered them for acts of piety during a “Year of Mercy” in 2016, as his predecessors had done for past “jubilee” years.
Those eligible for this year’s indulgence include all who attend Mass and confession in conjunction with the March for Life, and who pray for causes specified by the pope, according to the bishops.
The March for Life is an ecumenical and interreligious event, drawing many Protestants and others who don’t share Catholic belief in indulgences or Purgatory.
But the annual gathering also draws heavy Catholic participation both to the main rally and to side events, such as a Mass at St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Washington.
Bishop David Zubik said the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh would be publicizing the indulgence in its newspaper this week to make the faithful aware of the opportunity.
“For the thousands of local Catholics who participate in this march every year, this indulgence is a way to embrace the mercy that God offers us through the Church,” Bishop Zubik said in a statement. “We march as an expression of love for every human being, and this is an opportunity to experience that love in a deeper way.”
Dozens of buses are scheduled to take participants from Pittsburgh-area churches to theannual march.
“We’re very excited about” the news of the indulgence, said Helen Cindrich, executive director of People Concerned for the Unborn Child, a Brookline-based advocacy group. She’s attended almost every march since it began.
“We hope more people would say, ‘Wow, if the pope thinks it’s that important, I wantto go’,” she said.
“I’m sure it will be something extra-special for the young people,” she said, adding that the march is “turning into a youth movement” with large numbers of young attendees.
Under Catholic teaching, a “plenary indulgence” enables a recipient to go straight to heaven after death, rather than spending time in Purgatory for further spiritual cleansing. A recipient can also receive such an indulgence on behalf of a deceased loved one. (A “partial” indulgence, in contrast, only accounts for some of the temporal consequences of sin.)
Indulgences do not replace the need for the forgiveness of sins through confession, accordingto the catechism.
But the church teaches that sin, in addition to needing forgiveness, also has “temporal” effects. People need to repair the damage they did through sin, plus overcome their susceptibility to temptation, according to church teaching. This is done through spiritual discipline on Earth or refinement in Purgatory after death.
Papal indulgences enable the devout to draw on the spiritual merits of Jesus, Mary and the saints to speed their way to heaven, the church teaches.
In 1517, the sale of indulgences stirred outrage in a German monk, Martin Luther, who saw it as a cheap commercialization of piety, and launched the Protestant Reformation. Soon after Mr. Luther’s time, the Catholic Church banned the sale of indulgences but affirmed their legitimacy when conferred basedon an act of piety.
While the indulgence may revive memories of what divided Catholics and Protestants in the first place, conservatives in both groups have put aside differences to cooperate against abortion. And a Pew Research Survey last year found a blurring of beliefs among U.S. Catholics and Protestants, most of whom said the two had more similarities than differences.