The Vatican on last Thursday granted a "plenary indulgence" --
forgiveness from temporal penance for sins -- for attendees at the
Catholic World Youth Day celebrations later this month.
Anyone who
is not able to attend but prays "for the spiritual aims of this meeting
and for its successful outcome" will get a partial indulgence, said the
Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary -- a Vatican court for the forgiveness of
sins.
Indulgences are an arcane Roman Catholic Church practice
administered by the Vatican that helped inspire Martin Luther's
Protestant Reformation in the 16th century.
The Catholic Church traditionally grants indulgences on World Youth Days.
Pope
Benedict XVI will travel to Madrid on August 18 for the last four days
of the six-day World Youth Day festival at which around a million young
Catholics from around the world are expected.
The Vatican said the
indulgences would be conditional on pilgrims going to confession and
taking communion and will be granted only following attendance at the
final mass in Madrid on August 21.
Even then pilgrims will only
receive the indulgence if, "having gone to confession and truly
repented, they receive Holy Communion and pray in accordance with the
intentions of the Holy Father," the Vatican added.