Distinction between Penance and Indulgences

As the Church provides in the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC),

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints.”

“An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin.” Indulgences may be applied to the living or the dead (CCC 1471, footnotes omitted).

So an indulgence is the merciful remission of temporal punishment due to sin by God through his Church to people who are disposed to receiving such a remission.

Penance, i.e., our cooperation in remitting such temporal punishment, aids the process in our obtaining of an indulgence and also—apart from our reception of an indulgence—can lessen or even eliminate our need for an indulgence as we grow in holiness (see CCC 1373, 1378).

For more on this subject, see our “Primer on Indulgences” tract. See also the Church’s treatment of the closely related Sacrament of Penance (CCC 1471), also known as Confession and Reconciliation (see CCC 1422ff.).