Vatican offers ’time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets | World news | The Guardian
▻http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/16/vatican-indulgences-pope-francis-tweets
Vatican offers ’time off purgatory’ to followers of Pope Francis tweets
Papal court handling pardons for sins says contrite Catholics may win ’indulgences’ by following World Youth Day on Twitter
In its latest attempt to keep up with the times the Vatican has married one of its oldest traditions to the world of social media by offering “indulgences” to followers of Pope Francis’ tweets.
The church’s granted indulgences reduce the time Catholics believe they will have to spend in purgatory after they have confessed and been absolved of their sins.
The remissions got a bad name in the Middle Ages because unscrupulous churchmen sold them for large sums of money. But now indulgences are being applied to the 21st century.