We can explain that the Plenary Indulgence is a more complete forgiveness, as it provides purification that is necessary to come before God. The Catechism says:
“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints” (1471).
The way to gain a plenary indulgence is both very simple and very difficult at the same time; here you have the external conditions:
• Go through the door of the Year of Mercy, which will be installed in a Church per Vicariate. This is a pilgrimage to the temple with the intention of starting a true conversion.
• Go to Confession with this same intention.
• Receive Holy Communion with the desire to practice the mercy that Jesus taught us.
• Recite the Creed, or prayer expressed as the faith of the Church.
• Pray for the Holy Father and his intentions.
• The Pope also states that you can obtain the Plenary Indulgence when you practice the Works of Mercy, because this way we become like Christ.
The hardest condition to gain the plenary indulgence is letting go of all attachments to sin. Be free for God, loving our brothers and sisters. That is why gaining the indulgence is painful; it is sacrifice because it means breaking with all that separates us from God. The purpose of the Holy Year is that we work every day so that our desires are God’s desires, or so that in our lives we are truly capable of doing God’s will, loving our brothers and sisters.
The Pope explains that the sick who cannot make this pilgrimage may obtain the grace of the Holy Year, living this difficult year with joy, receiving the Eucharist, and attending Mass albeit electronically (Internet, TV, Radio).
The Pope has also thought of the imprisoned and invites them to join this effort of purification by participating through personal prayer thinking about their own conversion when they cross the door of their cell.
Dr. Jose Antonio Medina is the Director of the Office of Continuing Formation of Priests for the Diocese of San Bernardino.