INDULGENCES ARE AN AID TO CONVERSION

VATICAN CITY, APR 3, 2000 (VIS) - Made public today was a message from the Pope to Cardinal William W. Baum, major penitentiary, on the occasion of the annual course on the internal forum. The course is for candidates to the priesthood and for recently ordained priests.

In his message, dated April 1, the Holy Father writes that "God's mercy, although not mediated by time and space, shines forth with special brightness in the Jubilee Year. The fundamental gift of the restitution of grace - which normally takes place through the sacrament of penance - and the consequent remission of the pain of hell are united by the Lord, 'dives in misericordia,' through the ministry of the Church, to the remission of temporal punishment by the gift of indulgences."

Consequently, he adds, "indulgences, 'far from being a sort of 'discount' in the commitment to conversion, act rather as a support to a readier, deeper and more radical commitment'."

He concludes by saying "I ardently call upon priests to educate the faithful through relevant and profound catechesis. In this way, the faithful may take advantage of the great gift of indulgences, in keeping with the mind and spirit of the Church. Priest confessors in particular could, to great advantage, assign to their penitents, by way of sacramental penance, practices which lead to indulgences, always keeping to the criteria of due proportion with the sins confessed."

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