NEW ENCHIRIDION INDULGENTIARUM IS PRESENTED TODAY

VATICAN CITY, SEP 17, 1999 (VIS) - The new "Enchiridion Indulgentiarum" was presented this morning in the Holy See Press Office by Cardinal William Baum, major penitentiary, and Msgr. Dario Rezza, Vatican canon.

An enchiridion is a manual or handbook. The 127-page volume in Latin presented today is the fourth edition of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum. Cardinal Baum, who was also joined by Bishop Luigi De Magistris and theologian Fr. Ivan Fucek, S.J., both of the Apostolic Penitentiary, pointed out that the Latin version of the third edition has been sold out since 1986.

In his introduction, Cardinal Baum said that "indulgences, correctly understood and piously obtained, are a vital moment of continual conversion, of the continual process of sanctification with which supernatural life on earth is identified."

Msgr. Rezza highlighted how, from the first Jubilee in 1300, under Boniface VIII, to the imminent 26th ordinary Holy Year, the "indulgence is one of the constitutive elements of the Jubilee event." He reiterated the cardinal's point that the indulgence "is intimately linked with the sacrament of reconciliation."

The Enchiridion, citing canon 992 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, defines an indulgence as follows:

"An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment for sin the guilt of which is already forgiven, which a properly disposed member of the Christian faithful obtains under certain and definite conditions and with the help of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies authoritatively the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints."

Fr. Rezza remarked that the "two principal causes that a veil of silence was thrown over indulgences were their refusal by the Reformed Churches, ... and several recent historical studies on the medieval period, which considered them to be 'devotional abuses', which came out at the same time as the 'medieval invention' of purgatory."

He said that the misunderstandings which occurred throughout history have been overcome and clarified. Today, he stated, "the Catholic doctrine on indulgences is based on very precise theological premises and well documented historical precedents from tradition."

Msgr. Rezza confirmed that there are three new innovations in this fourth edition of the Enchiridion Indulgentarium: "A re-explication both of the unchangeable principles that regulate the discipline of indulgences and of the specific norms, in the light of recent documents from the Apostolic See; The systematic manner of exposition which allows for more rapid consultation; The method, which aims to underline how the concession of indulgences serves to increase 'the pious affection of supernatural charity both in individual faithful and in the ecclesial community itself'."

Regarding the new concession of indulgences, the following are mentioned: "Participation in days or weeks of prayer dedicated to specific religious ends, the cult of the Eucharist, the extension of plenary indulgence for group recitation of the rosary and the Akathistos (ancient hymn to the Virgin). Particular reference is also made to the faculty of various episcopal assemblies, both in the Oriental and Latin-rite Churches, to determine the prayers most widely diffused in their own territories."

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