Indulgences do not feature prominently in the daily life of Roman Catholics today. But last year's "great jubilee", marking the advent of the third millennium, reawakened longstanding Christian differences about them.

From the beginning, the Roman Catholic Church wanted the "great jubilee" to have a strongly ecumenical character. Christian world communions readily accepted an invitation to appoint delegates to the central committee in Rome organizing the year. But the Vatican was not so willing to "ecumenize" the jubilee year as to discard the jubilee indulgence as a "constitutive element" of the year.

Nobody seems to have noticed until late in the day that this was bound to cause conflict.

The consultation on indulgences
United in diversity

WARC's representative on the central committee was the Waldensian pastor, Salvatore Ricciardi. The Waldensians, "premature Reformers" from the 12th century, have always opposed indulgences on principle (just as Calvin did later), and as a minority church in Italy are acutely sensitive to their differences from Rome.

When John Paul II published Incarnationis Mysterium, the "bull" announcing the jubilee year, Ricciardi began a correspondence with the pontifical council for promoting Christian unity (PCPCU) which led eventually to WARC's withdrawal from the year.

The bull, Ricciardi wrote in October 1998, "seems wholly untouched by the events which shattered western Christianity in the 16th century". He reiterated his conviction "that the place of 'indulgence' is none other than the crucified and risen Christ, and the church cannot be the administrator of its conditions, but purely and simply the witness." He requested that the central committee explain publicly that the jubilee year, however important a moment in the life of the Roman Catholic Church, was not the occasion to resolve the ecumenical problems relating to indulgences, which would need to be addressed from 2001 on. If this public explanation were not possible, it would be pointless for the Alliance to remain on the committee.

A friendly response by Cardinal Edward Cassidy in February 1999 served only to underline the difference in perspective. He believed that Incarnationis Mysterium showed "a situation radically different from that addressed by the Council of Trent when it indicated the abuses that needed to be rooted out." The bull was centred, not on indulgences, but on the "essential element" of the jubilee, the "conversion of the heart" which the second Vatican council described as "the soul of the whole ecumenical movement".

Ricciardi replied that, in his "Protestant obstinacy", he couldn't see any real difference between Incarnationis Mysterium and Trent.

WARC withdrew from the central committee in March 1999. It was conspicuously absent from the ecumenical service to open the "holy door" of St Paul's outside the Walls in February 2000, and was criticized for this by some within the Reformed family. The Lutheran World Federation (LWF) took part in the service, and was equally criticized for this by some within the Lutheran family.

Bishop (now Cardinal) Walter Kasper of the PCPCU wrote to the LWF and WARC to propose a small consultation on indulgences "in order to arrive at a better understanding on the part of all concerned". He again acknowledged that there was "a very unfortunate abuse of indulgences" at the time of the Reformation, but expressed the conviction that a proper understanding of indulgences would reveal "particular theological values" which explain the "enduring relevance" of indulgences in Roman Catholicism.

"The 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."
Ishmael Noko, LWF general secretary

Kasper suggested two possible methodologies: the Roman Catholic team would prepare two papers, one historical, the other systematic; and the Lutheran and Reformed participants could either write responses or prepare independent presentations of their own perspectives on indulgences. Oddly enough, given the pre-history of the consultation, the former methodology was chosen.

The consultation took place in Rome in February this year. According to WARC's theology secretary, Odair Pedroso Mateus, it showed that the Vatican was "trying to be sensitive" to Protestant ecumenical concerns.

  "It was good to learn from the Roman Catholic inputs that indulgences were a way in which the church accompanied individuals in their dealing with the consequences of sin. This is a valid challenge to the individualism that may characterize some ways in which the consequences of sin are addressed in some circles. It was also good to remember that Reformed objections were not simply to the abuses of the middle ages. Professor Ellen Babinsky reminded the consultation that John Calvin objected to indulgences as such.
  A consultation of this kind is good as a discussion starter. We hope that when the papers are published, there will be vigorous discussions in all our churches. This will inform us on the next steps to take."
  Setri Nyomi, WARC general secretary

It did not aim at agreement, but did help to clarify views. "It gave clear indications of what Protestants could consider an 'evolution' in the official Roman Catholic theology and teaching of indulgences," Mateus said. "They are increasingly interpreting indulgences as a spiritual rather than a Mammon experience of grace (cheap grace that turns out to be expensive, something widespread in neo-Pentecostal churches as well)."

"This spiritual experience of grace remains mediated by the 'visible' church, vested with a kind of spiritual power that we find extremely difficult to attach to a human institution."

Páraic Réamonn