Understand first what an indulgence is and is not. Canon 992 defines it as the remission before God of temporal punishment for sins whose guilt is already forgiven, obtained by a properly disposed member of the faithful through the ministry of the Church. It does not forgive sin; grave sin must first be forgiven in sacramental confession. To gain a plenary indulgence, perform the work to which the grant is attached and fulfil the three usual conditions — sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, for which an Our Father and a Hail Mary suffice — and be free of all attachment to sin, even venial sin. Where that last disposition is lacking, or a condition is unmet, the indulgence obtained is partial. The three conditions may be fulfilled some days before or after the work itself; a single sacramental confession suffices for several plenary indulgences, while Communion and the prayer for the Pope are required for each. Only one plenary indulgence may be gained in a day, apart from the indulgence granted at the hour of death. An indulgence may be applied to oneself or to the souls in purgatory, but not to another living person. Finally, keep the practice in proportion: the Church attaches indulgences to works of prayer, penance and charity in order to encourage those works, and it is the works, done in charity, that convert the heart.

Paul VI's apostolic constitution Indulgentiarum Doctrina (1967) reformed the discipline and set out its doctrinal basis in the communion of saints; canons 992-997 of the 1983 Code carry the reform into law. The particular grants are collected in the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum of the Apostolic Penitentiary.

Other

Latin Church

As the individual grants provide; at most one plenary indulgence a day

other