Pope Francis opens the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica to inaugurate the Jubilee Year of Mercy at the Vatican Dec. 8. (CNS photo/Maurizio Brambatti, EPA) See POPE-MERCY-DOOR Dec. 8, 2015.
ALL ABOUT HOLY DOOR AND INDULGENCES
Question: What is Holy Door?
Answer:
The Holy Door is a door designated at St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, cathedrals, and other designated churches where as you enter the said door, you can able to gain indulgence as long as you comply its following requirements:
Confession
Holy Eucharist
Prayer for the Pope
Doing charitable and spiritual exercises
The Holy Door symbolizes our Lord Jesus Christ because just like the door, Christ is open to us and willing to accept us despite of our sinfulness (Rev 3:20, Jn 10:7-9).
In Christ, we can experience God’s mercy and compassion (Lk 6:36). Also, we can find peace, rest, and salvation in him (Rev 3:20, Jn 10:7-9, Mt 11:28).
Regarding to those requirements mentioned above to gain indulgence, those are biblical-based because these are the ways for us to make good works and they are necessary for our salvation (Eph 2:10, Jas 2:14-26), and the church has the authority to impose those requirements as part of its authority given by Christ to his church (Mt 16:18, Mt 18:18, Jn 20:21-23).
Christ’s presence is also there in the Holy Door because in the first place that he is a true God and true Man (Phil 2:1-11, Col 1:15-17, Jn 10:30, Heb 1:1-14, Jn 20:28). Christ is God and remember that God dwells in his temple and is there for us (2 Chro 7:14-16, Jer 23:24, Mt 28:20).Remember that our Catholic churches in parishes also are temples and it was said that God dwells in his temple, plus the Holy Door is also there in Catholic churches like cathedrals, etc. Therefore, it is proven that Christ’s presence is there in the Holy Door and in the Catholic churches for he is omnipresent (Jer 23:24).
In short that the Holy Door is really biblical-based.
Question: What is an Indulgence?
Answer:
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 (CCC Paragraph 1471). We need indulgence because in every sin we commit, there are always a corresponding punishment (Ecc 11:9, 2 Sam 12:13-15). An example of this was the case of King David that although his sin was forgiven by God, but he faced the punishment as the consequence of his sin and the punishment was the death of his son he had with Uriah’s wife (2 Sam 12:13-15).
The requirements to gain an indulgence are the following:
Confession
Holy Eucharist
Prayer for the Pope
Doing charitable and spiritual exercises
There are 2 kinds of Indulgence:
Plenary – Able to comply all the requirements being required by the church to gain indulgence.
Partial – To comply some of the requirements being required by the church to gain indulgence.
In Plenary Indulgence, all temporal punishments are dispensed while in Partial Indulgence, only some of the temporal punishments are dispensed.
The Catholic Church has given by Christ an authority to grant indulgence to the faithful (Jn 20:23, 2 Cor 2:6-11, 1 Cor 5:3-5).
Therefore, Indulgence is also biblical.