Indulgences — just hearing the word can bring to mind images of heated debates between Catholics and Lutherans. But even after 500 years since the Reformation, this topic is still being talked about, especially during this current Jubilee 2025. 

If we’re going to understand where both Catholics and Lutherans stand today, we need to look back at where this all started, how the doctrine has evolved, and how dialogue over the years has shaped current beliefs.

The indulgence controversy began back in the early 1500s with Johann Tetzel, a Dominican friar in Germany. He became infamous for selling indulgences — basically “passes” that supposedly shortened the time a soul spent in purgatory. His famous slogan, “As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs,” struck a chord with people but also sparked outrage. 

This practice didn’t sit well with Martin Luther, a German monk, who saw it as a distortion of the core gospel message. In 1517, Luther posted his 95 Theses, criticizing the selling of indulgences. His criticism wasn’t just about the practice — it was a direct challenge to how the Church was interpreting salvation, setting off the Reformation.

For Luther, indulgences represented a system that misrepresented the gospel of salvation by faith alone. His bold stand was a key moment that led to the split from the Catholic Church and the rise of Protestant denominations. 

In response to the crisis, the Catholic Church convened the Council of Trent 480 years ago to address the issue. The Council condemned the sale of indulgences, calling it “evil gain.” However, indulgences weren’t completely abandoned. The Church clarified that spiritual indulgences — grants of forgiveness for temporal punishment due to sin — could still be valid, provided they were understood in the proper theological framework. In short, the abuse of indulgences was dealt with, but the Church kept the broader theological practice.

Fast forward to the 20th century, and the significance of indulgences started to change again. The 1975 Jubilee Year, the first one after the Second Vatican Council, marked a shift in how the Church approached indulgences. The Bull of Indiction presented the Jubilee indulgence as immediately linked with Christ himself — “Since Christ is our ‘justice’ and our ‘indulgence’, we willingly extend the participation of the gift of indulgence.” There is also a notable emphasis on “a profound conversion of the soul to God” for those who seek to acquire the indulgence. The Great Jubilee of 2000, extraordinary Jubilee Year of Mercy (2013), and current Jubilee Year 2025, all have similar ecumenical sensibilities. 

While the doctrine of indulgences is itself linked to the understanding of justification and merit, the more central theological question of justification has been the focus of ecumenical dialogue over the last 60 years, sidelining the discussion on spiritual indulgences. Nevertheless, two significant attempts have been taken in the last decades to address the differences between Catholics and the churches of the Reformation on indulgences. 

The first attempt was a theological consultation that took place between Catholics, Lutherans and Reformed, from Feb. 9-10, 2001, just one year after the Great Jubilee 2000. The purpose of this consultation, however, was to clarify historical, theological and pastoral issues related to indulgences, rather than to reach any agreement. The texts from this consultation were unfortunately never published and consequently the issue was left hanging. 

The second, and more substantial attempt, occurred during Round XI of the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue (2008-2010). These series of discussions between Lutherans and Catholics began in July 1964 as an ecumenical initiative of the Second Vatican Council. Although this discussion didn’t address indulgences directly, it did address the “transformation of the self between death and heavenly glory and the practice of indulgences.”. The results of the dialogue were published in 2011 as Hope of Eternal Life — Lutherans and Catholics in Dialogue XI. 

The Lutheran understanding, according to the document, is that “[t]he existence of purgatory is not dogmatically denied” and could even be “discussed in principle.” However, the discussion of indulgences would be “concretely objectionable” because the theory of satisfactions still owed by a sinner after the forgiveness of sins goes contrary to the “proclamation of free forgiveness” of sins in Lutheran theology. Consequently, indulgences as remittances for unresolved satisfactions of sins would have no meaning. 

For Lutherans, the report continues, penance once understood as a “juridical model of punishment and satisfaction” is reconceived in the “model of ongoing death and resurrection”  as a gradual and continual pre-mortum purgation that eventually comes to completion at one’s deathbed. 

As Luther says in the Large Catechism: “Because holiness has begun and is growing daily, we await the time when our flesh will be put to death, will be buried with all its uncleanness, and will come forth gloriously […].” 

However, some Lutheran theologians, like K.F.A. Kahnis and Hans Martensen in the 19th century, proposed that purgation might continue after death. They argued that the purification of the soul should be better understood as more gradual, instead of happening all at once at the moment of death. 

In the 20th century, theologians like Paul Althaus and Wolfhart Pannenberg took this idea even further, suggesting that although purgatory might not be the right word, there could still be a painful but necessary moment of recognizing one’s sinfulness after death. For Pannenberg, this would be a moment of reconciliation with God, although he still rejected the idea of indulgences as a practice.

On the Catholic side, the Hope of Eternal Life document from the U.S. Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue reflects a much more developed Catholic view of purgatory and indulgences.  

First, Catholics emphasis the healing and reparative character of the suffering in purgatory. The document quotes the International Theological Commission’s statement on Some Current Questions in Eschatology (1992) stating: “Where there is a delay in reaching the possession of the beloved, there is sorrow, a sorrow that purifies.” 

Second, there is a “greater emphasis on the Christological character of purgatory” where the “fire of purgatory is understood as either the Holy Spirit or Christ himself.” Thirdly, the duration of this purifying experience cannot be measured in chronological time. Here the Catholic perspective follows the teaching of St. Pope Paul VI with his 1967 apostolic constitution, Indulgentiarum Doctrina that removed the numerical system that previously represented days or years of reduced time in purgatory through indulgences. 

Finally, the Catholic perspective stressed “the bond of love that unites the living and the departed, a unity expressed in an unbroken community of prayer.” That is, Catholics also emphasize the efficacy of intercession for the dead including the indulgence of the remission of the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven to the souls in purgatory. 

So, after 500 years where do we stand? 

Both Catholics and Lutherans have moved past the abuses of indulgences that sparked the Reformation. While Lutherans still reject indulgences in the traditional sense, there’s more recognition of shared goals — spiritual renewal, transformation, and sanctification. Both traditions now the have a deeper understanding of how Christ’s love purifies and transforms. 

A deeper theological discussion on indulgences has still to be achieved, nevertheless, the shared focus on salvation, grace, and spiritual growth remains a common thread in both Catholic and Lutheran theology.

 

Father Avelino González is a pastor and Catholic priest of the Archdiocese of Washington. He is also associate professor of theology at Catholic International University. From 2016 to 2021 he served as a Vatican official for the Dicastery for Promoting Christian Unity.