Indulgences for All Souls in November

In November there are two extra “indulgenced works” by which one can obtain a Plenary Indulgence for the Faithful Departed – Souls in Purgatory. These cannot be applied to the person doing the “indulgenced work.” Other “indulgenced works” can be done for the benefit of the person doing the “indulgenced work” or for the Poor Souls but not for other living persons. The two “indulgenced works” for the Poor Souls at this time of the year are:

1. On All Souls’ Day (Nov. 2) a plenary indulgence, applicable only to the Poor Souls, is granted to those who visit any parish church or public oratory and there recite one Our Father and one Credo and fulfill the usual conditions of Eucharistic Communion and Confession within 20 days before or after doing the “indulgenced work”, prayers for the Holy Father (an Our Father and Hail Mary suffice, but other prayers can be offered, and have no attachment to venial sin.

2. On all the days from November I though November 8 inclusive, a plenary indulgence, applicable only to the Poor Souls, is granted to those who visit a cemetery and pray even if only mentally for the departed and fulfill the usual conditions of Eucharistic Communion and Confession within 20 days before or after doing the “indulgenced work”, prayers for the Holy Father (an Our Father and Hail Mary suffice, but other prayers can be offered, and have no attachment to venial sin.

What is an indulgence?

“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.

“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.” The faithful can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them to the dead.” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 1471)

Other information on indulgences from the Enchiridion of Indulgences, 1966:

“To be capable of gaining an indulgence for oneself, it is required that one be baptized, not excommunicated, in the state of grace at least at the completion of the prescribed works, and a subject of the one granting the indulgence. “In order that one who is capable may actually gain indulgences, one must have at least a general intention to gain them and must in accordance with the tenor of the grant perform the enjoined works at the time and in the manner prescribed….

“A plenary indulgence can be acquired once only in the course of a day.

“But one can obtain the plenary indulgence for the moment of death, even if another plenary indulgence had already been acquired on the same day.

“A partial indulgence can be acquired more than once a day, unless otherwise expressly indicated…

“To acquire a plenary indulgence it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill the following three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even venial sin, be absent.”