What do we mean when we talk about reducing specific amounts of time in purgatory?

Q: In an earlier column, you said that purgatory was a state outside of time and that we can't talk about how long someone spends in purgatory in terms of years. But then why do you sometimes see old holy cards that say a prayer is worth "100 days' indulgence" or something similar?

A: Purgatory is indeed a state that exists apart from the linear time we experience in our lives on earth, and therefore we cannot truly speak about how long a soul spends in purgatory according to a literal measure of days, months or years. Still, there are other reasons for sometimes using time-based terminology when discussing purgatory.

God is always ready and willing to forgive whatever sins we have committed as long as we turn to Him in a spirit of sincere repentance. Yet as we read in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "it is necessary to understand that sin has a double consequence." Aside from the possibility of losing our place in heaven "every sin, even venial, entails an unhealthy attachment to creatures, which must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called Purgatory."

This paragraph of the Catechism goes on to note that the sufferings of purgatory, which are meant to heal the woundedness of soul that comes from a disordered love of created things, are called the "temporal punishment of sin." The word "temporal" refers to the concept of time, in the sense of purgatory being "time-limited," as opposed to the eternal suffering of hell.

There are a few ways to, in a manner of speaking, "shorten one's time" in purgatory. One way is to work to break our attachments to sin while still on earth, which can be done by cultivating habits of prayer, taking on penitential practices and sacrificial works of charity, and by patiently accepting any suffering that comes our way.

For our departed friends and relatives already in purgatory who can no longer do these things for themselves, we can hasten their journey toward heaven by praying for them. Additionally, we can also earn indulgences for either ourselves or for those in purgatory.

An indulgence is a special favor, granted by the church on the occasion of completing some act of piety (like saying a particular prayer or visiting a certain church), which either partially or completely remits the temporal punishment due for one's sins.

The church is able to do this because of the "power of binding and loosing," which Jesus gave to the church; and also because many of the saints were holy and virtuous above and beyond what was needed for their own salvation. This "extra" holiness of the saints is called the "treasury of grace," and the church can apply it to souls more in need (see paragraphs 1475-1479 of the Catechism for reference).

A plenary indulgence resolves all the purification needed and frees a soul from purgatory; whereas a partial indulgence eases the suffering of purgatory in a less than complete way.

When you see old references to an indulgence for a certain number of days or years, this indicates that it is a partial indulgence. The mention of earthly time periods was meant as a way to communicate that the indulgence would have the effect of the amount of patient sufferings or good works that a person could bear or do in that timeframe if they were on earth. For example, a 100 days' indulgence would impart the same amount of grace a person could earn from doing 100 days' worth of good works.

This way of counting "time off" purgatory could be misleading, so Pope St. Paul VI decided to abolish the practice of quantifying indulgences in terms of earthly measurements of time in 1967 with the Apostolic Constitution "Indulgentiarum Doctrina." The church still grants partial indulgences, but we now entrust the exact "amounts" of grace to God's mysterious providence.