From a reader….
QUAERUNTUR:
I was wondering if it is still possible to gain indulgences during a papal interregnum (i.e., praying for the Holy Father’s intentions being a requirement to gain the indulgence)? Also are there any traditional practices during this time in place of praying for the Holy Father? I imagine just praying for a good, holy man to be the new pope.
Yes, it is still possible to obtain indulgences during the papal interregnum. When a Pope dies, almost all of the offices/positions in the Roman Curia are automatically vacated. Almost all. Two which do not cease are the Camerlengo (who has to organize the funeral and conclave) and the Major Penitentiary (usually a cardinal) in charge of the Apostolic Penitentiary. This is not a prison. It is the “senior” of the Church’s three tribunals, along with the Signatura and the Rota.
The Apostolic Penitentiary is competent in all matters regarding the internal forum and indulgences as expressions of divine mercy. For the internal forum, whether sacramental or non-sacramental, it grants absolution from censures, dispensations, commutations, validations, remissions and other favors.
The Apostolic Penitentiary is charged with the granting and use of indulgences.
The role of the Major Penitentiary is so important that, if he is a Cardinal Elector (under 80, etc.) he is one of the only people who can communicate with the outside world during the conclave. The other two are the Cardinal Vicar of the Diocese of Rome and the Cardinal Vicar of the Vatican City State.
The good of and the salvation of souls through the internal forum, the matter of censures, and the availability of indulgences is of such paramount importance that these functions remain in place even in an interregnum.
The Church has the authority to apply the merits of Christ’s Sacrifice and of the saints to relieve temporal punish due to sin through indulgences. While individual bishops can grant some indulgences for his subjects, this is done for the universal Church through the Apostolic Penitentiary.
As for the second question, I suppose we could have Masses said for him and we can – and should – pray the Rosary and other prayers such as the Memorare for the intentions you infer, namely, when it is pretty sure that he is in extremis that he have a good and holy death and for the Cardinal electors to choose a holy man who is also highly competent.
It is also important for pray for Popes and others after they die as well. Speaking of gaining indulgences!
Let us all pray for those who have gone to their judgment and not assume that they have automatically or quickly been admitted to the Beatific Vision. It is an important work of mercy to pray for the dead.
Gain indulgences!
That also means…
GO TO CONFESSION!
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How about during a 67-year interregnum? (Just asking for a sede-vac pal.)
It sounds like someone is planning to go to Rome for the Jubilee and the deadline to cancel with a full refund is approaching.
I’m not saying I was the QUAERUNTURer but I appreciate the well timed answer.
As a Sede, I offer for “…the intentions of Saintly Pius XII.”
Saintly Padre Pio, even as an aged and most venerable priest, still offered prayers for the happy death of his grand-parents, long since passed.
The cardinal who was major penitentiary during the 2005 conclave – now retired and 92 years old – lives in my neighborhood and has occasionally attended Mass in choir at my parish.
How about during a 67-year interregnum?
In that case, especially if this interregnum should come with people who actually do claim to be the Pope are recognized as such and thus the interregnum would even be hidden and there would be all-confusion,
it would be rather futile to bother about indulgences, wouldn’t it? If God could say “on second thought, I’d rather not” to His promise about the gates of hell not prevailing against the Church in general and the Papacy in particular, what hinders Him to say “on second thought, I’d rather not” to accepting the Church jumping in for a sinner’s due atonement?
Note: here “not” includes “there is some hidden sense of meanings in words which allow a construction that yields ‘technically yes’; but at any rate ‘not’ in any sense the casual listener understands things”. I do not myself see even such a hidden sense, but even if there were one, the second could also be just such a “technically yes”…
When my prayers refer to papal intentions, I have been offering them
“for the popes’ intentions”…
It’s a teeny tiny displacement of an apostrophe by ONE little letter! I hope that the admonition to pray for papal intentions isn’t meant to explicitly EXCLUDE the intentions of those who used to be the pope but are now merely worldly-life-challenged, is it? And anyway, their intentions while in this life usually remain perfectly worthwhile intentions, right? Does that undercut any indulgences I might have otherwise gained?