New plenary indulgences are available today! Can you beat that? Next year is the 150th anniversary of the appearance of Mary at Lourdes. To celebrate this occasion, the Pope has decreed that visitors to the Shrine of the Madonna of Lourdes after December 8, 2007 will receive a break on their time in Purgatory!
If you live in Rome and want to go to Lourdes in France, you can take the special Vatican-run airline that has been set up for just such pilgrimages! What a brilliant idea from the Holy Father!
Don't worry - if you can't make it to the south of France for this one-time opportunity, you can also get the same break on your Purgatory sentence if you pray at places of worship dedicated to the Madonna of Lourdes from February 2-11. And if you're too sick to make it to your local shrine, you can petition for a special exception to get the plenary indulgence from your bed.
I LOVE this pope! He's so darn Roman Catholic!
I wonder if Madonna can get a deal for naming her daughter Lourdes??
"The doctrine of repentance has been utterly corrupted by the Pope and his adherents. For they teach that sins are remitted because of the worth of our works. Then they bid us doubt whether the remission takes place. They nowhere teach that sins are remitted freely for Christ's sake, and that by this faith we obtain remission of sins.
Thus they obscure the glory of Christ, and deprive consciences of firm consolation, and abolish true divine services, namely, the exercises of faith struggling with [unbelief and] despair [concerning the promise of the Gospel].
They have obscured the doctrine concerning sin, and have invented a tradition concerning the enumeration of offenses, producing many errors and despair.
They have devised, in addition, satisfactions, whereby they have also obscured the benefit [and merit] of Christ.
From these, indulgences have been born, which are pure lies, fabricated for the sake of gain."