[Sca-cooks] lent, wine, indulgences, de Nola

[Huette von Ahrens]

I really love it.  Calling the selling of
indulgences a "myth" and then proving it wasn't a
myth.  Pope Leo X approved the selling of
indulgences to finance the building of St.
Peter's.  Forty-six years and eight popes after
Leo's death, the Church gets around to cleaning
up the mess by declaring it never happened.  That
would be like some future president signing into
law that breaking into candidates offices is
illegal, that it was always illegal, that
Watergate was an abuse of the political system
and that it was a myth and never happened.

Wow!  It is a good thing that I am a Lutheran.  I
just equated Pope Leo with Pres. Nixon!  I am not
sure though whom I insulted worse, Leo or Nixon.

Huette

--- "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org> wrote:
> At 05:18 PM 1/20/2004, you wrote:
> 
> >--- "Laura C. Minnick" <lcm at efn.org> wrote:
> > > On indulgences- you can't get an indulgence
> for
> > > something you haven't done
> > > yet- it is only for sins already committed.
> You
> > > must confess the sin and be
> > > forgiven- it is the punishment that you are
> > > avoiding by the indulgence.
> > > *and* it can only be done for venial sins,
> not
> > > mortal. What an indulgence
> > > does essentially is to reduce your
> punishment
> > > in purgatory- gets you 'time
> > > off for good behavior' :-)
> > >
> > > Thus endeth the lesson. :-)
> > >
> > > 'Lainie
> >
> >Well that was the original intent.  But during
> >the Reformation, indulgences _were_ being sold
> >for future sins, sometimes unspecified future
> >sins, if you paid enough money.  They were
> also
> >selling indulgences for dead relatives, so
> they
> >could escape purgatory.  This whole subject
> was
> >one of the things that ticked Martin Luther
> off
> >and lead eventually to the Reformation.
> 
> Not quite. It involves some hair-splitting
> though (and sounds uncomfortably 
> like a certain former president). There is a
> remarkably wonderful website 
>
at:http://www.cin.org/users/james/files/indulgen.htm
> that gives the 
> straight skinny on indulgences. In particular,
> it has this to say (about 
> 3/4 or the way down):
> 
> 
> Myth 6: A person can buy indulgences.
> 
> The Council of Trent instituted severe reforms
> in the practice of granting 
> indulgences, and, because of prior abuses, "in
> 1567 Pope Pius V canceled 
> all grants of indulgences involving any fees or
> other financial 
> transactions" (Catholic Encyclopedia). This act
> proved the Church's 
> seriousness about removing abuses from
> indulgences.
> 
> Myth 7: A person used to be able to buy
> indulgences.
> 
> One never could "buy" indulgences. The
> financial scandal around 
> indulgences, the scandal that gave Martin
> Luther an excuse for his 
> heterodoxy, involved alms- indulgences in which
> the giving of alms to some 
> charitable fund or foundation was used as the
> occasion to grant the 
> indulgence. There was no outright selling of
> indulgences. The Catholic 
> Encyclopedia states: "[I]t is easy to see how
> abuses crept in. Among the 
> good works which might be encouraged by being
> made the condition of an 
> indulgence, almsgiving would naturally hold a
> conspicuous place. . . It is 
> well to observe that in these purposes there is
> nothing essentially evil. 
> To give money to God or to the poor is a
> praiseworthy act, and, when it is 
> done from right motives, it will surely not go
> unrewarded."
> 
> There is quite a bit more. Suffice it to say,
> there were abuses. There 
> still are, for other things. But the presence
> of abuses does not negate the 
> official doctrinal stance.
> 
> I'd have more interesting stuff, however the
> books I would be looking for 
> are... 180 miles away. As usual. *poo*
> 
> 'Lainie
>
___________________________________________________________________________
> "To announce that there must be no criticism of
> the president ... right or 
> wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but
> is morally treasonable to 
> the American public." -- Teddy Roosevelt, 1918 
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=====
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves for they 
shall never cease to be amused.

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