VATICAN CITY — In places particularly hard hit by the
coronavirus pandemic and with severe limits on people leaving their homes,
conditions may exist to grant general absolution to the faithful without them
personally confessing their sins first, the Vatican said.
The Apostolic Penitentiary, a Vatican tribunal that deals
with matters of conscience, including confession, issued a notice March 20 that
while individual confession and absolution is the normal means for the
forgiveness of sins, "grave necessity" can lead to other solutions.
In a separate decree, the Apostolic Penitentiary also
offered the spiritual assistance of special indulgences to people afflicted
with COVID-19, to those in quarantine, to medical personnel caring for
coronavirus patients and to all those who are praying for them.
"This Apostolic Penitentiary holds that, especially in
places most impacted by the pandemic contagion and until the phenomenon
subsides, there are cases of grave necessity" meeting the criteria for
general absolution, the notice about confession said.
Determining what constitutes grave necessity generally is up
to the local bishop in consultation with his bishops' conference. But
throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the Vatican sought to limit the use of general
absolution and encouraged increasingly strict definitions of what constituted
an emergency situation.
"Taking into account the supreme good of the salvation
of souls" and the level of contagion in his diocese, the local bishop must
determine "the cases of grave necessity in which it is licit to impart
collective absolution: for example, at the entrance to hospital wards where
faithful in danger of death are hospitalized, using -- within the limits of
what is possible and with appropriate precautions -- means for amplifying the
voice so that the absolution is heard" by the patients.
"If the unforeseen necessity arises to grant
sacramental absolution to several faithful at the same time, the priest is
obliged to forewarn the diocesan bishop as far as possible and, if it is not,
to inform him as soon as possible afterward," the decree said.
During the pandemic, it said, bishops also must tell their
priests and faithful the measures that must be adopted to hear individual
confessions, such as the need for them to take place in a well-aired space and
not the confessional, the adoption of an appropriate distance between priest
and penitent and the use of face masks.
In every case, the notice said, there must be "absolute
attention to safeguarding the sacramental seal and the necessary
discretion" so that no one nearby hears what is being said.
And, echoing what Pope Francis had said that morning in his
homily, the Apostolic Penitentiary urged priests to remind their faithful that
when they find themselves with "the painful impossibility of receiving
sacramental absolution," they can make an act of contrition directly to
God in prayer.
If they are sincere and promise to go to confession as soon
as possible, they "obtain the forgiveness of sins, even mortal sins,"
the notice said.
In the decree on indulgences, the Apostolic Penitentiary
noted the fear, uncertainty, physical spiritual suffering people around the
world are experiencing because of the pandemic.
"This Apostolic Penitentiary, with the authority of the
Supreme Pontiff, trusting in the worlds of Christ the Lord and looking with a
spirit of faith at the epidemic underway, which should be lived in a tone of
personal conversion, grants the gift of indulgences" to a variety of
people in a variety of circumstances.
An indulgence is a remission of the temporal punishment a
person is due for sins that have been forgiven.
Praying for the dying who cannot receive the sacrament of
anointing, the decree said the church entrusted them to God's mercy and drew on
the merits of the communion of saints to grant a plenary indulgence to
Catholics on the verge of death, as long as they "habitually recited
prayers during their lifetime."
The decree granted a plenary or full indulgence to all
Catholics in the hospital or under quarantine because they have tested positive
for COVID-19 if they are sorry for their sins and prayerfully watch or listen
to Mass, the recitation of the rosary or a pious practice such as the Way of
the Cross.
If that is not possible, the decree said, they should at
least recite the Creed and the Lord's Prayer and invoke the help of Mary,
"offering this trial in a spirit of faith in God and of charity toward
others" and with a determination to go to confession, receive the
Eucharist and pray for the intentions of the pope as soon as possible.
"Health care workers, family members and those who,
following the example of the good Samaritan, assist those sick with the
coronavirus, exposing themselves to the risk of contagion," also receive
the plenary indulgence, it said.
The decree also grants the indulgence to any Catholic who
visits the Blessed Sacrament, "reads sacred Scripture for at least a half
hour," recites the rosary or the Divine Mercy Chaplet "to implore
Almighty God for an end to the epidemic, the relief of those who are afflicted
and eternal salvation for those the Lord has called to himself."