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Almost five centuries after Martin Luther protested against many practices of the Roman Catholic Church, the Vatican has held a consultation with two organizations representing mainstream Protestantism to discuss the issue of indulgences—a practice that contemporary Protestant theologians find perplexing, as Luther did.

The consultation on indulgences, held in Rome on February 9 and 10, brought together leading theologians representing the Vatican's Council for Promoting Christian Unity, the Lutheran World Federation (LWF), which represents 60 million of the world's 64 million Lutherans, and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC), which links 75 million Christians in 214 churches in 106 countries.

After the meeting, one key participant, Zimbabwean theologian Dr Ishmael Noko, the general secretary of the LWF, said that Luther's "nailing of the 95 theses, an event that many cite as the beginning of the Reformation, was a call by the young Luther, as a devout Catholic, to a debate about the 'power and efficacy of indulgences'. But the theological debate that he called for on October 31, 1517 never took place. I see the ecumenical consultation that has now taken place as a partial response to Luther's call of so many years ago."

Indulgences are not normally a dominant practice in the day-to-day life of most Roman Catholics. However, the publication by the Vatican in 1998 of a document on how the faithful could obtain plenary indulgences in the Catholic Church's jubilee year in 2000 reawakened long-standing differences about the issue. (Indulgences are made available by the church to Catholics in jubilee years, which are held every 25 years.)

The publication of the document prompted criticisms from Protestant churches in Italy, France, and Switzerland, who considered the reaffirmation of the practice of indulgences to be an anti-ecumenical act.

Following the church protests, WARC, to which many of the churches that protested belong, also withdrew from the ecumenical committee for the Catholic jubilee, and declined to send representatives to most events in Rome for the jubilee. However, many other confessional bodies, including the LWF, participated in jubilee events in Rome.

This month's consultation in Rome was called by the Vatican in response to the Protestant criticisms regarding indulgences. The Vatican was also concerned about the strong media focus on the conditions for obtaining indulgences rather than on the pastoral theology behind the practice.

According to Roman Catholic teaching, the souls of those who have died in a state of grace undergo a period of purification in purgatory before being admitted to the Beatific Vision—in heaven. In purgatory these souls may undergo punishment for sins that have already been forgiven and also for venial—minor—sins.

Indulgences shorten or, in the case of plenary indulgences, cancel outright this unspecified period in purgatory. The church teaches that Catholics can obtain an indulgence—either for themselves after their own death, or for another soul already in purgatory—by following certain rituals or acts of self-denial.

The abuse of indulgences, such as their sale by professional "pardoners", was one of the practices that prompted Martin Luther's protest in the 16th century. But the theology of granting indulgences is generally problematic for Protestant and also Orthodox churches because they do not accept the Roman Catholic understanding of purgatory.

The Roman teaching on indulgences also highlights radical differences with Protestants on issues such as the nature of the church.

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February (Web-only) 2001, Vol. 45