Do you even care?
No.
Must I run through every apologetic response to every anti-Catholic talking point, just for the sake of it?
Maybe for .
certain acts will serve to remove certain amounts of time one would spend in Purgatory
My understanding was that beef with indulgences was that people would buy them on behalf of OTHERS, like a mother who lost her son buying indulgences FOR HIM! This seems like exploitation of love, whereas buying indulgences for oneself merely seems like an exploitation of fear.
My understanding was that beef with indulgences was that people would buy them on behalf of OTHERS, like a mother who lost her son buying indulgences FOR HIM! This seems like exploitation of love, whereas buying indulgences for oneself merely seems like an exploitation of fear.
The merits of the saints can help us attain salvation, and so if the piety and charity of one can help oneself reduce temporal suffering, it is not unreasonable to suggest that such pious or charitable actions can help others accomplish the same - though I'm not as familiar with that particular side of this issue.
If a saint vouches for us, that's his decision, and that decision isn't motivated by exploitation of love, as is the case with the mother and son.
The cynical view will be exploitation of love in one case, exploitation of fear in the other, as you have already pointed out. But as I've pointed out before, the possibility of a cynical view does not negate the merit of the charitable view.
(post is archived)