(The letter file in pdf can be downloaded here)
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Come, Your Kingdom!
October 27, 2015
To the members of Regnum Christi
Dearly beloved in Jesus Christ,
I am pleased to inform you that the Holy Father Francis, through the Apostolic Penitentiary, has granted us a plenary indulgence in the form of a jubilee on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the founding. This morning I received the rescript establishing the conditions for Legionaries and all members of the Movement to benefit from this grace during our jubilee year, which will conclude on the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart of 2016. I thought it appropriate to communicate this as soon as possible and to send you the original decree and a translation into Spanish.
As you know, indulgence consists of a remission of the temporal penalties for sins already forgiven that the sinner should purge in this life or in the next before entering into full communion with God in heaven. I invite you to take advantage of this circumstance to review what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches about these graces granted from the Church’s spiritual treasury (nn. 1471-1479).
Although you can read the rescript from the Apostolic Penitentiary, which is much more precise, I want to summarize here the conditions established so that Legionaries and members of the Movement can gain the plenary indulgence for our jubilee year. Besides the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic communion, prayer for the Holy Father’s intentions, rejection of all sin), we can earn the indulgence, which can also be applied to the deceased as suffrage:
1. On the solemnities of Jesus Christ, King of the Universe in 2015 and of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in 2016, by renewing with devotion, even privately, our vows or the commitments of members of the Movement, asking for the grace to fulfill our vocation. Likewise, we should pray to God during an appropriate period for the fidelity of our homeland to its Christian vocation, for vocations to the priesthood and religious life, and for the defense of the family institution. The prayer concludes with the Our Father, the Creed, and the invocation to Mary, Queen of the Apostles.
2. Each time you dedicate a suitable time to practicing corporal or spiritual works of mercy, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed, and the invocation to Mary, Queen of the Apostles.
3. Each time, with a merciful heart, you dedicate a suitable time to teaching or learning the Christian doctrine or evangelization missions, concluding with the Our Father, the Creed, and the invocation to Mary, Queen of the Apostles.
Legionaries and members of Regnum Christi who are hindered by health or old age from performing these works can also gain the plenary indulgence with the intention to fulfill the usual conditions at the first opportunity, if they join jubilee celebrations or other spiritual initiatives, offering their prayers and sufferings to God through the Virgin Mary for the new evangelization of peoples and for the establishment of the Kingdom of the Heart of Jesus Christ.
I encourage you to take advantage of this grace granted by the Holy Father to renew our gratitude to the Lord for the gift of the Movement and to increase our desire to be credible apostles and witnesses of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.
With a prayerful remembrance,
P. Eduardo Robles-Gil, L.C.
Attachment: Original rescript and translation into Spanish
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Plenary indulgences in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (nn. 1471-1479) |
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1471 The doctrine and practice of indulgences in the Church are closely linked to the effects of the Sacrament of Penance. What are indulgences “Indulgence is the remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins, already forgiven in regard to guilt, which a faithful person who is disposed and fulfills certain conditions gains through the mediation of the Church, which, as the administrator of redemption, distributes and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints” (Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution *Indulgentiarum Doctrina*, norms 1). “Indulgence is partial or plenary depending on whether it frees from the temporal punishment due for sins in part or in full” (Indulgentiarum Doctrina, norms 2). “Every faithful person can gain indulgences for themselves or apply them as suffrage for the dead, whether partial or plenary” (CIC can. 994). The penalties of sin 1472 To understand this doctrine and practice of the Church, it is necessary to remember that sin has a double consequence. Mortal sin deprives us of communion with God and thus makes us incapable of eternal life, whose deprivation is called the “eternal punishment” of sin. On the other hand, every sin, even venial, involves disordered attachment to creatures that must be purified, either here below or after death, in the state called Purgatory. This purification frees from what is called the “temporal punishment” of sin. These two punishments should not be conceived as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from outside, but as something that springs from the very nature of sin. A conversion that proceeds from fervent charity can lead to the complete purification of the sinner, so that no punishment would remain (cf. Council of Trent: DS 1712-13; 1820). 1473 Forgiveness of sin and the restoration of communion with God involve the remission of the eternal punishments of sin. But the temporal punishments of sin remain. The Christian must strive, patiently enduring sufferings and trials of all kinds and, when the day comes, facing death serenely, accepting these temporal punishments of sin as a grace; they should be applied, both through works of mercy and charity, and through prayer and various penitential practices, to strip oneself completely of the “old man” and to clothe oneself with the “new man” (cf. Eph 4:24). In the communion of saints 1474 The Christian who wishes to purify himself from sin and sanctify himself with the help of God’s grace is not alone. “The life of each of God’s children is linked in an admirable way, in Christ and through Christ, with the life of all other Christian brothers, in the supernatural unity of the Mystical Body of Christ, as in a mystical person” (Pope Paul VI, Apostolic Constitution *Indulgentiarum Doctrina*, 5). 1475 In the communion of saints, therefore, “there exists among the faithful, both among those who are already blessed and among those who are expiating in purgatory or still peregrinating on earth, a constant bond of love and an abundant exchange of all goods” (ibid). In this admirable exchange, the holiness of one benefits the others, beyond the damage that one’s sin may have caused to others. Thus, the resort to the communion of saints allows the contrite sinner to be purified beforehand and more effectively from the punishments of sin. 1476 These spiritual goods of the communion of saints, which we also call the treasure of the Church, “are not the sum of goods, as are material riches accumulated over the centuries, but the infinite and inexhaustible value that the satisfactions and merits of Christ our Lord have before God, offered so that humanity might be free from sin and attain communion with the Father. Only in Christ, our Redeemer, are the satisfactions and merits of His redemption found in abundance” (Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 5). 1477 “Likewise belonging to this treasure are the truly immense, inconceivable, and ever-new price that the prayers and good works of the Blessed Virgin Mary and all the saints, who sanctified themselves by the grace of Christ, following His steps, and performed works pleasing to the Father, have before God, so that, working for their own salvation, they also cooperated in the salvation of their brothers in the unity of the Mystical Body” (Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 5). The indulgence of God is obtained through the Church 1478 Indulgences are obtained through the Church, which, by virtue of the power to bind and loose granted to it by Christ Jesus, intervenes in favor of a Christian and opens for him the treasury of the merits of Christ and the saints to obtain from the Father of mercy the remission of the temporal punishments due for his sins. For this reason, the Church does not only want to help this Christian but also to encourage him to perform acts of piety, penitence, and charity (cf. Indulgentiarum Doctrina, 8; Council of Trent: DS 1835). 1479 Since the deceased faithful in purification are also members of the same communion of saints, we can help them, among other ways, by obtaining indulgences for them, so that they may be free from the temporal punishments due for their sins. |
