12 Ways to Gain a Jubilee Plenary Indulgence and Help Yourself or the Souls in Purgatory

Indulgences are a wonderful gift of God’s mercy and understanding them can have a profound effect on a practicing Catholic’s daily life. Unfortunately, many Catholics are negatively influenced by a misunderstanding fueled by Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation (learn more about that here).

Understanding indulgences will give a faithful Catholic a way to appease a guilty conscience and an effective and fruitful means of helping deceased loved ones and friends who may be languishing in Purgatory. Jubilee Years are a special time of grace full of oppotunities to obtain special indulgences. Because of that, the Vatican has given the faithful detailed information about how to obtain plenary indulgences during the 2025 Jubilee Year.

Indulgences remit the temporal punishment - all (plenary) or in part (partial) - due to sins that have already been forgiven by applying the merits of Christ to particular prayers and pious practices of the Catholic faithful. That is, if the faithful have confessed their sins, they will be forgiven the temporal punishment they must otherwise endure in purgatory. 

Learn more about indulgences here.

To receive a plenary indulgence, in addition to the actual inulgenced prayer or action, the usual conditions must also be met:

1. Be in the state of grace and free from all attachment to sin, even venial sins. Make an examination of conscience asking Our Blessed Mother - Our Lady of Sorrows - to show you the sins you are attached to and then make an act of the will to renounce them and make concrete resolutions to live this out.

2. Receive Holy Communion

3. Pray for the Intentions of the Pope. Many people are uncomfortable praying for “Pope” Francis’ monthly intentions. Instead, pray for the traditional intentions of the Holy Father (not just any intention). An Our Father and a Hail Mary are common prayers for this. No matter who the current pope is, the 6 objective intentions, of the Holy Father are as follows:

• The Exaltation of the Church.
• The Propagation of the Faith.
• The Extirpation of Heresy.
• The Conversion of Sinners.
• The Concord between Christian Princes.
• The Further Welfare of the Christian People.

4. Receive Sacramental Confession (within 20 days before you gain the indulgence) with true sorrow for your sins and a firm purpose of amendment. Indulgences are given as a blessing for true repentance. 

Each indulgence requires a separate Communion and prayer, ideally on the day of the indulgenced act although that is not strictly necessary. Only one plenary indulgence can be obtained per day, but a second is possible if applied to souls in purgatory (scroll down to read personal testimony). Once again, this would mean that you would need to receive Holy Communion twice in one day in order to obtain a second plenary indulgence. 

The 12 Ways to obtain a special Jubilee plenary indulgence include:

PILGRIMAGES

1. National

The Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C., is the only nationally designated “Jubilee site” in the U.S. While there, participate in Mass, Liturgy of the Hours, Stations of the Cross, the Rosary or Akathist, a penance service, or a celebration of the Word of God.

2. International

In Rome, visit St. Peter’s, St. John Lateran, St. Mary Major or St. Paul Outside the Walls. In the Holy Land, visit the Holy Sepulchre (Jerusalem), Basilica of the Nativity (Bethlehem) or Basilica of the Annunciation (Nazareth).

3. Close to Home

 Visit any site designated for Jubilee pilgrimages by the local bishop.

EUCHARISTIC VISITS

4. Pilgrimage Sites. 

At any site listed above, spend time in Eucharistic adoration, concluding with the Our Father, a Profession of Faith, and prayers to Mary.

5. Italy

Do the same at any of six other churches in Rome (Santa Croce, San Lorenzo, San Sebastiano, Divino Amore, Santo Spirito in Sassia, Tre Fontane), the “Iter Europaeum” route (28 churches connected to European nations), the “Patronesses and Doctors” route (seven churches dedicated to female saints), the Roman Catacombs, or five churches outside Rome (St. Francis and the Portiuncula in Assisi, St. Anthony in Padua, Our Lady of Loreto, Our Lady of Pompei).

6. Close to Home

Do the same at any church designated by a local bishop, or any basilica, cathedral or shrine (Marian, national or international) worldwide.

PILGRIMAGES IN SPIRIT

7. Those impeded by “serious reasons” — cloistered religious, the elderly, the sick, prisoners, caregivers — can get the indulgence by uniting spiritually with pilgrims, especially through EWTN or other media, and reciting an Our Father and Creed, “offering up their sufferings or the hardships of their lives.”

WORKS OF MERCY AND PENANCE

8. Formation

Participate in a study on the Vatican II documents or the Catechism, held in a church or other suitable place, “according to the mind of the Holy Father.”

9. Visits

Spend time with those in need — the sick, prisoners, lonely elderly, the disabled — “making a pilgrimage to Christ present in them.”

10. Fasting and Abstinence

In a spirit of penance, give up “futile distractions” (real or online) and “superfluous consumption” (through fasting, abstinence or almsgiving) for at least one day.

11. Defend Life and Volunteer

Support efforts defending life at all stages or helping abandoned children, struggling youth, the needy, lonely elderly or migrants. Do acts of community service.

12. Blessing

Receive the “papal blessing” from your bishop.

 
Sources: EWTN (National Catholic Register) and “Decree on the Granting of Indulgence during the Ordinary Jubilee Year 2025”

Personal Testimony of the Incredible Grace offered through Plenary Indulgences offered for the Holy Souls in Purgatory during a Jubilee year:

My uncle, my mother’s brother, was married five times and in his second marriage he had two sons. He and his second wife divorced when they were 5 and 1 ½ years old. She remarried and her new husband threatened my uncle and told him he could not see his sons ever again. Unfortunately he complied out of fear and did not pursue a relationship with them. My mother prayed about their reunion for over 20 years but saw no results.

During the Jubilee Year of 2000, my mother and my family made a visit to EWTN and heard a talk given by a priest about the Jubilee Indulgences. He suggested that we make a resolution to obtain a plenary indulgence, many times throughout the week, every day if possible, and offer each one for the holy souls in purgatory and ask them, in return, to pray for a prayer intention that we have been praying about for a long time that has not been answered. He said that the souls in purgatory are happy to do this because they are so grateful for the indulgences we obtain for them.

My mother was very inspired and motivated by this and knew immediately that she would do this and ask the holy souls in purgatory to pray for my uncle and his sons to be reunited. She began to do this right away.

About six months into it, God worked a miracle! My uncle's wife was transferred with her job from Cincinnati to Columbus, Ohio. While living there, they needed to have their air conditioner serviced and the technician assigned to the job was my cousin, one of his sons. My uncle did not know that his two sons were living in Columbus at the time. My cousin saw the name on the job order and thought, “Oh my! I am about to meet my dad!” Needless to say, they were reunited and have been close ever since. About a year later, my aunt was transferred back to Cincinnati and my cousins eventually moved there too. 

What a blessing to be able to help the holy souls in purgatory and receive their help in return. This is the Communion of Saints.  Is there a prayer intention that you have almost given up on? Why not give this pious practice a try during this Jubilee year?