EXTENSION OF NOVEMBER INDULGENCES FOR WHOLE MONTH
UNDER the fatherly gaze of the Sovereign Pontiff, and ever solicitous for the salvation of souls, the Apostolic Penitentiary has mercifully granted special indulgences in this year of the Coronavirus, when the actions of the civic authorities make difficult frequent visits to churches and cemeteries, and to avoid the gathering of large groups. The Decree was signed on 22 October, the Feast of Pope St John Paul II.
The indulgences applicable to the Holy Souls, customarily available daily to the Faithful for the week from the 1st November, are this year extended to any eight days, not necessarily continuous, throughout the month of November.
The Indulgence for the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (2nd November) may be fulfilled on any day of the month.
The usual generous concessions for the housebound apply to this provision.
For those of us who every year set out on All Saints with with such good intentions to release eight souls from Purgatory, and who reach the end of the week distracted by daily chores and disappointed at our failure, this year there really is no excuse.
The formal text of the Indulgence is printed below :
For the faithful departed
§ 1. A plenary indulgence, applied exclusively to the souls in Purgatory, is granted to the Christian faithful who:1° on each single day, from the first to the eighth day in November, devoutly visit a cemetery and, even if only mentally, pray for the faithful departed; [Note: one plenary indulgence for each day, if the usual conditions are met]
2° on the day of Commemoration of All Faithful Departed [November 2] (or, according to the Ordinary, on the preceding or subsequent Sunday, or on the day of the solemnity of All Saints) piously visit a church or oratory and there recite the Pater and the Credo.
(Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, 4th edition.)
REQUIEM AETERNAM DONA EIS DOMINE, ET LUX PERPETUA LUCEAT EIS
REQUIESCANT IN PACE. AMEN.