Year for Priests plenary indulgence

Pope Benedict XVI is granting plenary indulgences for both priests and the faithful during the Year for Priests, which runs June 19, 2009 through June 19, 2010.

According to a May 12 Vatican decree, the means to obtain the indulgence are as follows:

• For priests, the plenary indulgence may be received by praying lauds or vespers before the Blessed Sacrament exposed to public adoration or in the tabernacle. They must also "offer themselves with a ready and generous heart for the celebration of the sacraments, especially the Sacrament of Penance." They will be granted partial indulgences “every time they devotedly recite the prayers duly approved to lead a saintly life and to carry out the duties entrusted to them.”
• For the faithful, the plenary indulgence may be obtained by attending Mass and offering prayers to Jesus Christ — “the supreme and eternal priest” — and praying for priests during the first and last days of the Year for Priests, on the 150th anniversary of the death of St. John Vianney (Aug. 4, 2009), on the first Thursday of the month or any day established by local ordinaries, as long as they have received expiation for their sins through sacramental confession. All faithful may receive partial indulgences each time they pray five Our Father, Ave Maria and Gloria Patri, or any other approved prayer “in honor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, to ask that priests maintain purity and sanctity of life.”

The elderly, sick and homebound may receive a plenary indulgence if “on the days concerned, they pray for the sanctification of priests and offer their sickness and suffering to God through Mary, Queen of the Apostles."