By Fr. Jerry Pokorsky ( bio - articles - email ) | Dec 14, 2020
Up until the Covid-19 pandemic, we went to Mass, celebrated the sacraments, supported the Church with our contributions, and hoped to go to heaven when we died. After the shutdown of the Masses, we entered into the bizarre virtual reality of the internet. Today we have virtual Masses livestreamed on the web, virtual sacraments, and perhaps, one speculates, a virtual heaven. Alas, the Vatican is finding it difficult to reconcile the new virtual reality with the sacramental life of the Church.
In the real world, it is usually a happy and healthy thing to react against the elites who disparage popular piety. So it’s good news that the Church’s teaching on indulgences seems to be making a comeback after many years of disfavor, following Vatican II, among the elites of the theological profession. In recovering the desire for indulgences, we are beginning to restore a healthy sense of sin