The statement begins by stating that the liturgy will always be at the heart and center of the church's worship life. Concretely, the liturgy refers to the celebration of the seven sacraments, the Liturgy of the Hours, the Rites of Christian Burial and the Rites for the dedication of a church or for those making a religious profession. Popular devotions refer to pilgrimages, novenas, the rosary, processions in honor of Mary and the Saints, stations of the cross and use of sacramentals, etc.. Devotions are never intended to replace the liturgical life of the church; rather, they extend it into ones daily life. The following are excerpts from the twelve questions and answers on popular devotions. The following are excerpts from six of the twelve questions the bishops responded to in their pastoral statement. The response to question six is complete as is the piece on Indulgences.
3. What is the relationship between popular devotions and the Bible?
As the Bible stands at the core of what God has revealed to the church, sound popular devotions should naturally be strongly imbued with biblical themes, language and imagery. Pope Paul VI explained, "Today it is recognized as a general need of Christian piety that every form of worship should have a biblical imprint." He applied this in particular to the example of Marian devotions: "What is needed is that texts of prayers and chants should draw their inspiration and their wording from the Bible, and above all that devotion to the Virgin should be imbued with the great themes of the Christian message." In speaking of the rosary, Pope John Paul II insisted that it is not a substitute for the reading of the Bible: "on the contrary, it presupposes and promotes" prayerful reading of the Holy Scriptures.
6. What is the roles of the saints in the life of the church?
Many popular devotional practices involve veneration of the saints. The saints have a special place in the body of Christ, which includes both the living and the dead. Through Christ we on earth remain in communion both with the saints in heaven and with the dead who are still in purgatory. We can pray for those in purgatory and ask the saints to pray for us. Through their prayers of intercession, the saints in heaven play an integral role in the life of the church on earth. For after they have been received into their heavenly home and are present to the Lord, through him and with him and in him they do not cease to intercede with the Father for us, showing forth the merits which they won on earth through the one Mediator between God and man. The saints, the members of the church who have arrived at perfect union with Christ, join their wills to the will of God in praying for those in the church who are still on their pilgrimage of faith.
Besides what the saints can do for us by their prayers, the very practice of venerating the saints does great good for those who are devoted to the saints. By practicing love of the saints we strengthen the unity of the entire body of Christ in the Spirit. This in turn brings us all closer to Christ. For just as Christian communion among wayfarers brings us closer to Christ, so our companionship with the saints joins us to Christ, from whom as from its fountain and head issues every grace and the very life of the people of God. Love of the saints necessarily includes and leads to love of Christ and to love of the Holy Trinity. For every genuine testimony of love shown by us to those in heaven, by its very nature tends toward and terminates in Christ who is the 'crown of all saints,' and through him, in God who is wonderful in his saints and is magnified in them.
7. Why does Mary have a special role in helping us?
Mary embraces God's will and freely chooses to cooperate with God's grace, thereby fulfilling a crucial role in God's plan of salvation. Throughout the centuries, the church has turned to the Blessed Virgin in order to come closer to Christ. Many forms of piety towards the mother of God developed that help bring us closer to her Son. In these devotions to Mary, while the mother is honored, the Son, through whom all things have their being and in whom it has pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, is rightly known, loved and glorified and...all his commands are observed. The church honors her as the mother of God, looks to her as a model of perfect discipleship and asks for her prayers to God on our behalf.
8. How does our veneration of Mary and the saints relate to our worship of God?
The honor we give to God alone is properly called adoration, the highest honor we can give. The honor we give to Mary and the saints is called veneration. Proper veneration of the saints does not interfere with the worship due to God but rather fosters it.
The Second Vatican Council explained very clearly that Mary can be said to fulfill a mediating role only in a secondary and derivative manner:
"For no creature could ever be counted as equal with the Incarnate Word and Redeemer. Just as the priesthood of Christ is shared in various ways both by ordained ministers and by the faithful, and as the one goodness of God is really communicated in different ways to his creatures, so also the unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in this one source." (Lumen Sectium),
What Mary does for the salvation of the human family does not come from her own power, but from a gift of divine grace that is bestowed on her through her Son. All the salvific influences that she bestows on us is produced "not from some inner necessity, but from the divine pleasure. It flows forth from the superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it." Mary in no way replaces Christ. Rather, her role is to bring us to Christ, as is illustrated in Mary's admonition at the wedding feast of Cana, "Do whatever he tells you" (Jn. 2:5).
9. What is the difference between public revelation and private revelations?
The term public revelation refers to the revealing action of God directed to humanity as a whole and which finds its literary expression in the two parts of the Bible: the Old and New Testaments. It is called revelation because in it God gradually made himself known to men, to the point of becoming man himself, in order to draw to himself the whole world and unite it with himself through his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ.
Public revelation has been transmitted in sacred Scripture and in sacred tradition, which together form one sacred deposit of the word of God, committed to the church. This is the revelation that was given to the entire church and that must be received in faith by all the people of God. It is complete in itself and does not need to be supplemented by later revelations. In Christ, God has said everything, that is, her has revealed himself completely, and therefore revelation come to an end with the fulfillment of the mystery of Christ as enunciated in the New Testament. The father of the Second Vatican Council affirmed, We now await no further new public revelation before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Private revelations are different, for they refer to all the visions and revelations which have taken place since the completion of the New Testament. A vision or any other kind of miraculous communication from God or from Mary or another saint falls into this category. Private revelations are given to an individual or small group, not to the church as a whole. Consequently, while specific commands may be directed to an individual or small group, no obligation of assent of Catholic faith is placed on the church as a whole. Even when a 'private revelation' has spread to the entire world...and has been recognized in the liturgical calendar, the church does not make mandatory the acceptance either of the original story or of particular forms of piety springing from it. Private revelations do not have the same authority as public revelation. Public revelation 'demand faith; in it in fact God himself speaks to us through human words and the mediation of the living community of the church. Private revelations do not demand faith on the part of the church as a whole because such revelations do not belong to the deposit of the faith. It is not their role to improve or complete Christ's definitive revelation, but to help [people] live more fully by it in a certain period of history.
The role of private revelations is to help people to enter more deeply into the faith that has been revealed publicly. Private revelations are thus in service to the faith, which is based on public revelation. Private revelations are a help to this faith and shows its credibility precisely by leading [one] back to the definitive public revelation.
10. By what standard does the church judge the genuineness of private revelations?
Private revelations are always to be judged by their conformity to public revelation, particularly to the sacred Scriptures and not the other way around. As public revelation is centered on Christ, any genuine private revelation will make Christ known and will help bring people to Christ.
INDULGENCES
The appendix to the pastoral statement has a piece on the practice of Indulgences in the church. The following is almost the bishops complete statement on Indulgences.
A number of popular devotions have indulgences attached to them. Indeed, the fact that a particular devotion has an indulgence attached to it is an indication that this devotional practice has proven itself within the church to be helpful in bringing people closer to God. Because of the close association between popular devotions and indulgences, a clear understanding of the church's teaching on indulgences is necessary to appreciate the role of popular devotional practices in the life of the church.
i. What are indulgences?
An Indulgence does not confer grace. An indulgence is not a remission of the guilt due to sin. The guilt due to sin is ordinarily taken away by the sacraments of baptism and penance (confession), in which we receive forgiveness for sins through Jesus Christ. Although guilt is taken away, and with it the eternal penalty that is due to sin-namely, damnation, the eternal loss of the presence of God-there remain consequences for sins that those who have committed them must bear. There is what is traditionally called the temporal punishment for sin.
By its very nature, every sin inevitably causes suffering for the one who has committed it. Every sinful act creates a disorder within the soul of the human person; it distorts our desires and affections, leaving us with an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth or after death in the state called purgatory. Furthermore, sin disrupts one's relationships with God, with the church, with other people and with the world as a whole. The communion intended by God is damaged or lost. Those who have received forgiveness for their sins still have an obligation to undergo a difficult and painful process (the temporal penalty for sin) to be purified of the consequences of their sins and to restore the disrupted relationships. While patiently bearing sufferings and trials of all kinds and when the day comes, serenely facing death, the Christian must strive to accept this temporal punishment of sin as a grace. The necessary and painful process that brings restoration and purification can take place either in this life or in purgatory, as whatever part of the process remains unfinished at death must be completed in purgatory.
Through an indulgence, God grants the prayer of the church that the temporal penalty for sin due to someone be reduced (or possibly eliminated). By God's grace, participation in a prayer or action that has an indulgence attached to it brings about the necessary restoration and reparation without the suffering that would normally accompany it. The granting of an indulgence by the church is the expression of the church's full confidence of being heard by the Father when-in view of Christ's merits and by his gift, those of Our Lady and the saints-she asks him to mitigate or cancel the painful aspect of punishment by fostering its medicinal aspect through other channels of grace.
ii. How can indulgences remove some or all of the temporal punishment for sin?
It is because of the communion of saints that some or all of the temporal punishment for sin is removed. Although we always have to face the consequences of our sins in the form of the temporal punishment for sin-that is, the painful process of restoration and reparation-as members of the body of Christ we are never simply on our own. We are linked with Christ and with the martyrs and saints and can benefit from their holiness in such a way as to be freed from at least a portion of the temporal punishment for sin. In this wonderful exchange, the holiness of one profits others, well beyond the harm that the sin of one could cause others.
As a result of the communion that exists between Christ and all the members of the church, the church has a treasury of spiritual goods that is inexhaustible. The source of these spiritual goods is Christ. Pope Paul VI taught that this treasury of the church "is not to be likened to a centuries-old accumulation of material wealth. It means rather the limitless and inexhaustible value that the expiations and merits offered by Christ have in the eyes of God for the liberation of all humanity from sin and for the creation of communion with the Father. The treasury of the church is Christ the Redeemer himself: In him the atonement and merit of his redemption exist and are at work."
Since the martyrs and saints have accomplished all that they have in union with Christ, this treasury also includes the value of all their prayers and good works. As they followed Christ through the power of his grace, they became holy and they have accomplished a work pleasing to the Father. As a result, in working out their own salvation they have also contributed to the salvation of their co-members in Christ's mystical body."
Through her union with Christ, the church has the authority to dispense this treasury. When the church does this in order to spur people to acts of piety and charity, the church requires those who seek an indulgence to perform some good work or act of devotion. Furthermore, for reception of a plenary indulgence, which grants the remission of all temporal punishment due to sin, in addition to this good work or act of devotion the church specifies four conditions: (1) sacramental confession, (2) reception of holy communion, (3) prayer for the intentions of the Holy Father and (4) complete detachment from all sin, even venial sin. It must not be thought, however, that such acts of ours are somehow of themselves sufficient to earn the remission of the temporal punishment for sins. Our efforts, themselves the work of God's grace, express our openness to receive God's mercy. In the work of our salvation it is always God's grace that is primary, with a power that far exceeds all our efforts.