I'm a Lutheran, but I love this channel. I have always been taught that indulgences was buying your way into heaven. I now understand much more. Thank you!

This is by far the most comprehensive answer given to those who attack the Catholic Church on the subject. Some of my own doubts have been cleared, thanks to the analogies. Thank you, Fr. Schmitz, and may our Lord Jesus do wonderful things through you.

i grew up in SC in the Pentecostal denomination......im 34 now and just found your videos last night....i watched for over an hour straight.....i get more out of these short videos than i think ive ever gotten out of any hour+ sermon ive ever been in? keep up the good work sir

I have been a Catholic for 65 years, and that is the best explanation of indulgences that I have ever heard. I'm still trying to learn and between Fr. Mike S. and our own parish priests, I am still maturing spiritually. Thank you Fr. Mike

Just wanted to say I love your channel. I've never belonged to any specific sect (no one in my family is a practicing Christian), and admittedly I have always had my reservations about Catholicism. But you put things into user-friendly terminology and give the message of the "good news" without just filling your channel with motivational cherrypicked fluff. Huge fan, please keep it up! God Bless.

The Catholic church definitely did monetize grace though. Johannes Tetzel would say "When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs."

Now I get i! I've been a Catholic some 60 years and finally I get it! Thanks Father...and I love your videos.

As a Lutheran, I found this video to be interesting. I can see where Martin Luther could have misinterpreted what was happening. Thank you & God Bless.

Indulgence through works of the flesh can’t make you more holy before God . Our standing before the Father is based on Christ Jesus , what he has done .As he is so are we in this world 1 John 4 verse 17

This is a very good message, but I believe you are being somewhat disingenuous about the Church "selling" indulgences as merely a misunderstanding. The abuses of quaestores making outrageous claims in order to collect the maximum amount of alms in exchange for an indulgence in order to fund Church projects is well documented. Perhaps this is too heavy a topic for this series - but history is history - we Catholics should not hide from it or try to explain it away.

Thank you so much, Fr. Mike, for bringing clarity to this issue that has confused me so much.

Thank you for this! Even 7 years later I'm enjoying this. As a Catholic Christian who teaches secular students (who ask questions about the Reformation) I find this is extremely valuable.

Thank you Fr.Mike God bless Pray for us

Awesome stuff, Fr. Schmitz. Please keep them coming. God is using you in mighty ways.

Thank you! Alot of people have been asking about this. Thanks for explaining it thru examples. You are so intense, passionate. I love it. God bless you! ❣

Thank you Father Mike for talking about this. That was really super clear and understandable. I've been wondering about that for a while since I first heard about it. And yes, you made perfect sense!

Excellent video Father Mike!!! We can also gain Plenary Indulgences for souls in Purgatory on a daily basis if we go to weekly Confession, go to daily Mass, pray for the Pope daily, do the proscribed act each day (pray Rosary in a Church/Chapel OR do Stations of the Cross in a Church/Chapel, OR read the Bible for half an hour a day, OR give alms daily, OR do half an hour of Eucharistic Adoration daily) and not be attached to sin.

As both a Catholic interested in this topic and victim of a torn (now healed) Achilles' tendon, this video is just perfect!

Father, this is probably the best explanation of indulgences that I have ever heard. Thank you.

Very informative, but if the Church never sold indulgences then why did they banned the sale of indulgences in 1567?

If money is given by a donor, even as an act of alms-giving, and the donee makes a promise that the donor in return has x amount of years off purgatory, on a piece of paper comparable only to a receipt, and it is signed, you have a clear transaction. An assiduous person will not overlook the fact that contemporaneously, clergy were under instruction to extract as much revenue as possible from their congregations for St. Peter's. They were able to sell so very many indulgences through spiritual threats and bribes. It was a nasty situation.

I understand what he is saying, but at the end of the day, the church did say that if you give us money to build this church, we will give you an indulgence to relieve some of the cost of your sins. No where in scripture do we have the authority to do such a thing.

Thank you! I finally understand what indulgences are! I've been asking people for years and never understood. I can finally get that question out of my mind. Great video!

Great video, Fr. Mike. This really helped me understand the need for indulgences and the history, too. I found your video also helped my understanding of purgatory.

Great video! I always had trouble wrapping my head around indulgences. Also, it's good to clear up the mess inaccurate history books and narratives have about them that's learned in history classes. I'm not sure if there were some that actually committed Simony, but anyways good straightforward explanation about the confusions and misunderstandings that not only most people have, but what mainline history has. God Bless you Fr. Mike! Also, I like the Bishop Barron and Catholic Answers name drops haha!

This is so very helpful. My anty christian/catholic peers have so many accusations and objections that I'm literally spending every free minut watching videos like yours or reading apologetic books. All of their attacks and me searching for defending arguments just makes me realize even more that the Catholic Church is teaches the Truth and that it is magnificent.

I thought I understood indulgences, but that totally cleared up a lot of my misconceptions!! Thank you Fr. Mike! You're da bomb.

Pastor Mike there is something about you that makes me want to hear you. Plus your smile is contagious. You make me feel my glass is half full, instead of half empty. I still don't agrea with you religion. I feel you are a special person.

Thank you for this.

Ephesians 2: 8-9 For it is by God's grace that you have been saved through faith. It is not the result of your own efforts, but God's gift, so that no one can boast about it. You are saved by God's grace not your works!

Thanks for this amazing video! Really helped me understand indulgences even more 😊😊 Godbless your team Fr.Mike!!

May GOD continue to Bless you Fr. Mike!!!

I feel like I just got smacked upside the head and that the light bulb went on. This makes things so clear. Thank you!

God bless you Fr. Mike for your powerful witness. Catechism is severely lacking in today's Church. Thank you for your effort to change that.

This was a huge explanation for me. Thank you.

I love how you explained that. Thank you Fr. Mike

Great video as always

The Roman Church had made merchandise of the grace of God. The tables of the money-changers [Matthew 21:12.] were set up beside her altars, and the air resounded with the shouts of buyers and sellers. Under the plea of raising funds for the erection of St. Peter’s church at Rome, indulgences for sin were publicly offered for sale by the authority of the pope. --- The Great Controversy 126.4

God bless you for your easily understood Catholic Church’s beliefs. You are so inspiring. God bless you.

Thank you Fr. Mike for helping me understanding this better.

The Lord has worked in you to help many Father Mike, watching your videos has made my decision to convert from Protestant to Catholic much simpler. Weights have been lifted off my shoulders. Thank you!

This is GREAT!!! I am going to start having my kids watch one of these each morning. Please keep it up Fr Mike.

Very well explained! Thank you Fr. Mike! God bless!

Thank you for Your servant, Fr. Mike.

Your channel is part of the reason why I’m converting to Catholicism!

This is why I like being Catholic. We aren’t blind, we apply logic and reason to the teachings in order to better understand them and to also better ourselves.

Jaw dropped!! I just saw this was uploaded on my birthday!

Thank you so much for this Fr. Mike! Explanation was very clear and on point!

Thank you for your divinity, your graces are heard.... this is just a fabulous. Enduring Light and Prayers upon you Fr. Mike. God Bless!

With the building of the new St. Peter's in Rome there was a lot of pressure to raise money for its construction, and magnificent and luxurious it is!

thank you fr. Mike this really help me to understand

This is amazing. Thank you Father

I love how his explanation of how the Church wasn't selling indulgences sounds exactly like they WERE selling indulgences.

really awesome and informative to watch after coming back from sls16. I thought I knew about indulgences well enough. nope. definitely not the case.

this is very eye opening. we've been learning about this in world history class, and the teacher never explained it without bias like you just did. than you so much Fr. Mike!

Always so Happy being Catholic,and especially for Preist like you Fr. Mike

"Ask Catholic Answers" LOL You are hilarious father!!!! I love your videos! :D

What you explained is selling indulgences. Exchanging money for indulgences is a sale

Thank you, Father Mike. God bless you, too.

Wow... Thank you! The best I've heard indulgences explained. Perfectly understood now.

Sorry but, unfortunately there is historical truth to indulgences that you can’t just say didn’t happen

Confused. Did those in the church not sell masses for The Souls of the deceased in order to build the churches riches?.

One of the controversies about indulgences was that Friar Johann Tetzel was accused of accepting money to provide indulgences to forgive sins that had not yet been committed, thereby providing permission to commit sin. I think everyone can agree that that would be objectionable.

Thank you father. This is the best explaination on indulgences I have heard. I know the Holy Rosary has them and they draw you closer to Our Lord through Our Lady. God Bless.

Great video Fr.Mike, thank you. Though I just find it troublesome and tiring at times to explain our Catholic belief to the non-Catholic Christians. They will have a tons of doctrines to throw at us but when we try to explain it, they simply won't listen. They are just so defiant.

I've been doing indulgences and I didn't even know!! :)

I grew up catholic. I was a drug using, drug dealing, enemy of God. 7 years ago God through His Word filled me with a consuming fire to know, love and serve Him. This Jesus, whom I never knew through the Catholic church, redeemed me, saved me and cleansed me from all addiction outside of Rome's legalistic teachings. His grace is truly free. It cannot be earned. It can radically change your life. His Holy Spirit can break the chains of religious legalism and bondage. It is all about Christ and His sacrificial atonement once and for all. The curtain is torn. You have direct access to the Father through Christ. He is sufficient. You don't need to add to the cross. You humble yourself on your knees before a Holy and Just God who gives His grace freely to those who believe.

Thank you Fr. for this clarification.

Thank you father mike, it is so refreshing to see the enthusiasm that you have. You carry the light well father!

Okay, I understand your point. I just don't understand why it wasn't explained this way to Priest Martin Luther. If what you say is true then he should have recognized this as a miscommunication and gone on his Mary way... but that's not what happened...

Yes, the Catholic Church did sell indulgences for the souls of people who were already dead. The idea was that the living could purchase reductions in time in Purgatory for their loved ones who had died with sins that had not been fully absolved. By purchasing an indulgence, it was believed that the time the soul spent in Purgatory could be reduced, allowing them to reach heaven sooner.

Thank you Father for the Reformation!

"As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs." Explain this one Father.

Careful about minimizing the corruption of indulgences. Pope Leo X was the supreme authority in the Church when the reformation occurred. He did authorize return payments for remission of sins. He could have ignored Martin Luther but he didn’t because he was threatened by a schism. I think Jesus would have spoken about indulgences in the Gospels if they were really important

Excellent explanation. THANKS Fr. Mike. ❤🙏

As a Protestant, I’m not sure our friend Martin would agree with you. Sounds somewhat revisionist. But I do appreciate your presentations as they are always insightful. God bless.

I love Roman Catholic word games.

Father Mike, you are very entertaining to watch and I appreciate your ability to communicate Catholic Church truths. However, our problem is that because we are still in the flesh, our wounds can never fully heal because we are in perpetual sin...Mark 12:30 proves this. So, the question is...how many indulgences does one need to give in order to be healed from the temporal consequences of sin?....there is no way to quantify this, so you end up giving never ending indulgences. You can give all that you have, your life too...but it is never going to be enough, because we are in perpetual sin. The answer is....we look to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith(Heb 12:2), to comfort us and give us peace over the wounds our sins create. And as He sanctifies us, by the Holy Spirit that dwells with in those who are born again(John 3:3), the desires to sin lesson. As we walk with Christ, our hatred for sin increases; therefore we continue to turn from it (repentance). And the consequence of this progressive sanctification is we sin less. It's the work of the Holy Spirit, not our work of indulgences, that accomplishes this beautiful transformation while on earth. In this life we will have consequences of sin, trials, etc. But JESUS says, come to me, I will give you rest. My burden is light and yoke easy. And happy are those who mourn over their sin, for they will be comforted.(Mat 11:28-30, Mat 5:4) It brings to mind what Paul says to us in Romans 7:18-8:2. This passage ends with: "For the law of the SPIRIT has set you free IN Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death." The recovery from our wounds, that are caused by sin, are found in Christ. Christ is our all in all, not indulgences...Romans 11:36 proves this. May God bless you!

I was educated in Catholic school prior to Vatican II. Catholic school children memorized the Catholic (Baltimore) Catechism from cover to cover. The Catechism and the Dominican nuns taught that that we were destined to suffer the same fiery agony in Purgatory experienced by those in hell except that the suffering would not be eternal. This was true even if we made a "good" confession. The only escape was being granted a plenary indulgence which was very rare. Our Sunday Missals had indulgence requirements printed on the bottom many pages which parishioners followed to reduce their time in the flames of Purgatory. That teaching was abject child abuse. There is no doubt that fear was the principal motivator in the sale of indulgences to finance St. Peter's Basilica

Anyone who watches this please read Martin Luther by Eric Metaxis , you can explain it however you like, in the end , they sold indulgences period . One man actually paid Tetzel for future sins as he was told it would absolve them as well so he later beat and robbed Tetzel(indulgence preacher ) of all his money after he paid for his future indulgence lol .. As well much of the indulgences sold were for souls of loved ones in purgatory , perfect cash machine for the church when a family wants Grandpa admitted into heaven quicker . Many before Luther came and spoke against indulgence selling as well Dr Dietrich Morung was excommunicated years before as he spoke against this as well and was put in prison for a decade as a result . Johannn von staupitz also preached against this as well before Luther , as well as many theologians at the Sorbonne in Paris recognized the indulgence trade as a problem in need of fixing at the same time of Luther . "As soon as the coin in the coffer rings the soul from purgatory springs " Will you not then for a quarter of a florin receive these letters of indulgence through which you are able to lead a divine and immortal soul into the fatherland of praise " Tetzel (indulgence preacher at the time of Luther )

What is your response to John Tetzel selling indulgences during the time of Pope Leo X for the building of St. Peter's? He supposedly had a saying, something like "Every time a coin rings, a soul from Purgatory gains his wings."

You should get a gold medal for those mental gymnastics sir. Pope Leo X himself extended indulgences to those willing to help fund St Peters Basilica. Bishops all over Europe were selling indulgences. it was one of the direct causes of the reformation. the argument that it wasnt accctually the church that was selling indulgences (you know, just every person that made up the Church from the pope down)and it's not acccctually selling if you're just donating alms doesn't hold historical water. also, you got any scriptural references to back up your theology or is this just some stuff some dudes in Rome made up?

that’s way different than what i was always taught. thank you for the video.

Has anyone ever read the captions on these videos? I like how the autogenerate- captions "not have any attachment to sin" auto generated to "do not have any attachment to send metabolic" hehe... but thanks for the last bit about what has been misconstrued selling indulgences

Your zeal for your church is great but just a quick question so I have a reference. Where is the Bible reference? Did I miss that in the video or is this a Roman Catholic thing only?

Fr. Mike, what seminary did you go to??

This 👏 is 👏 so helpful

You are totally right father Mike, I was confused about the matter of indulgences and I used to agree on what church did by selling indulgences, but also it’s been said that there were ppl on that time, sellers of religious artifacts using the faith of believers for their own benefit and without caring about the image or reputation of the church. I’ve always been catholic and honestly I believe some priest on that time did also a wrong use of indulgences either as an act of profanity or just innocently in the sake name of the church. But it’s great to have your point of view father or the real way we must understand that issue.

you have the gift of speech... thank you for using it to serve...

I enjoyed your commentary father. And while you may be correct in saying that the "Church" never condone nor advocates the selling of indulgences. It would be disingenuous to say that it did not happen. And that every instance where it did appear to happen it was just a miscommunication of some sort. I'm Catholic and very proud to be one. But I'm also not afraid to admit to mistakes that the church made then or now. The people who make up the church are not perfect. And some of them have gone very evil things in the 2000 years we've been around. And the selling of indulgences did happen. Granted some of it may have been miscommunicated or misunderstood - it was nevertheless widespread enough to cause some real problems even at that time.

Liked and subscribed! very clear explanation. Godbless you too Fr. Mike.

Thank you you made me clear father Mike.

I get conflicted when my church says I need to pay 100.00 to have the confirmation classes. I have 4 kids. That's a lot of money. So my kids go unconfirmed. Makes me sad.

Where is the Biblical bases for this? And in the end who gives the right the ability to give this? Are you not acting God? And it is a fact that Church was selling indulgences for not only ppl who are poor but for them to guarantee their relatives's forgiveness. Where in the Bible is this justified? Also it is not Church that gives Grace. It is God.

So good Your making sense, thankyou

I am confused by something - when we say temporal consequences of Sin - I would assume that is here on earth. Reap what we sow. How then is this carried over after we die into another place that we need to be purified out of? It sounds like Christ's death wasn't quite enough. Even after we die...our spirit isn't whole and we need good works to get us out of purgatory....

Martin Luther did not leave the Roman Catholic Church; he was kicked out.

You said the temporal consequences of sin are biblical and commonsense. Where in scriptures does the book talk about temporal consequences?

Thank you so much 🙏... It really helped me...

Thank you so much father.