c. 1998 Religion News Service

UNDATED _ For many Roman Catholics, the ancient practice of granting indulgences _ credits of sorts, to speed the trip to heaven _ conjures up images of corrupt medieval clerics who abused their power. “It reminds me of the Dark Ages when people thought you could buy your way out of sin,”said George Lewis, who was leaving Sunday Mass this week at Our Lady of the Lake Church in Verona, N.J.

Yet as part of the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, Pope John Paul II is seeking to restore prominence to this relic of the old church, and expanding the ways Catholics can obtain indulgences _ from quitting smoking for a day to visiting the sick or imprisoned.

During the yearlong celebration, Catholics who perform deeds of self-sacrifice or acts of kindness and charity can atone for past sins and reduce their punishment here on Earth or in purgatory.

The celebration begins Christmas Day 1999 and ends on the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, 2001. The pope has declared the year a holy one.

Church leaders hope this vestige of the old church will be meaningful to modern Catholics, particularly as many churchgoers seek to strengthen their spirituality as the Christian millennium approaches.

Vatican officials emphasized that indulgences require a spirit of penitence and prayer and are not shortcuts to heaven for people who do not seek sincere forgiveness of their sins. “The indulgence is fundamentally about penance and good works and prayer. This is the essence of Christianity,”said the Rev. Thomas Guarino, a professor at Seton Hall School of Theology in South Orange, N.J. He emphasized that indulgences are just one part of the millennial celebration.

But more liberal Catholics chuckle, even shudder, at talk of indulgences. They deride the entire concept, and say today’s Catholics do not envision God as a great scorekeeper adding up spiritual debits and credits. “The idea of indulgences is to build up brownie points so you don’t spend a lot of time in purgatory,”said Linda Pieczynski, president of Call to Action, a church reform group based in Chicago. “I’m amused and surprised more than anything else. It’s like limbo, where babies who weren’t baptized were supposed to go. These ideas are just not talked about anymore,”she said.

Indulgences have a shaky history. Clerics sold them during the Middle Ages, a practice that angered Martin Luther and started a rift that led to the Reformation.

Talk of indulgences also creates controversy because the practice focuses on hell and purgatory _ concepts rarely spoken of from many Catholic pulpits these days. “Theologians debate if heaven, hell and purgatory really exist in these concrete ways,”said William D’Antonio, a religious researcher at The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C. “I thought Vatican II sent us off in a new direction, thinking about love and reaching out with the gospels, and being consistently concerned about the poor,”he said.”Not just `Do this and I’ll give you 10 indulgences.'” Guarino said purgatory remains very much a part of Catholic belief, and most people, at the moment of death, are not prepared to meet God. “Most of us go through a period of purification before we meet face to face with God,”he said.

Catholics traditionally could gain indulgences by saying the rosary or performing the Stations of the Cross, for instance. But the Pope’s pronouncement, included in a 29-page document,”Incarnationis Mysterium”(The Mystery of the Incarnation), emphasizes service to others. “The Pope has put focus on social works. Helping the handicapped, or people who are hurting, such as women who have been neglected or beaten. It’s about reaching out to others,”said William Ryan, a spokesman for the National Conference of Catholic Bishops. “The indulgence is one of the spiritual privileges extended during the jubilee,”said Monsignor Timothy Shugrue, director of the Jubilee Commission for the Newark Archdiocese and pastor at Immaculate Conception Church in Montclair, N.J.”It’s a way of applying the merits of the good deeds of the saints and the Virgin Mary and Christ himself to the rest of us.” Shugrue said John Paul modernized indulgences by”putting a practical, everyday face on it. It’s not something that only made sense generations ago,”he said.

But many Catholics interviewed after Mass recently knew little about the pontiff’s recent decree, though many said that amid talk of celebrations and computer chaos, they are thinking about the year 2000 as a celebration of the birth of Christ. Many parishioners are involved in small spiritual groups as part of Renew, a millennial program.

Many Americans who do not accept specific church teachings on indulgences and purgatory may still believe in the larger issues _ that an afterlife exists for people who are good on Earth, according to religious researcher Michelle Dillon at Yale University.

Dillon cited national opinion polls from the University of Chicago that found three-quarters of Americans of all faiths believe in an afterlife; about 70 percent believe in heaven for people who have lived a good life; and less than 50 percent of Americans believe in hell.

Many Catholics, she said, will find spiritual value in self-sacrifice, particularly in today’s culture of excess.

DEA END CAMPBELL