Indulgence in the Catholic context means selling forgiveness for money or via other means of gain or trade or action. (CCC 1471, 1498)
The Guardian UK reports today,
Vatican offers 'time off purgatory' to followers of Pope Francis tweets"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."
"But a senior Vatican official warned web-surfing Catholics that indulgences still required a dose of old-fashioned faith, and that paradise was not just a few mouse clicks away. "You can't obtain indulgences like getting a coffee from a vending machine," Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, head of the pontifical council for social communication, told the Italian daily Corriere della Sera. Indulgences these days are granted to those who carry out certain tasks – such as climbing the Sacred Steps, in Rome (reportedly brought from Pontius Pilate's house after Jesus scaled them before his crucifixion), a feat that earns believers seven years off purgatory."
"But attendance at events such as the Catholic World Youth Day, in Rio de Janeiro, a week-long event starting on 22 July, can also win an indulgence. Mindful of the faithful who cannot afford to fly to Brazil, the Vatican's sacred apostolic penitentiary, a court which handles the forgiveness of sins, has also extended the privilege to those following the "rites and pious exercises" of the event on television, radio and through social media. "That includes following Twitter," said a source at the penitentiary, referring to Pope Francis' Twitter account, which has gathered seven million followers."
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The Catholics believe in a mid-hell or waystation hell called purgatory. They think that you can buy your way out (indulgences) or be prayed out after your final purification in purgatory is accomplished, because Jesus' sacrifice was not enough, obviously. Annihilationists believe that your body is just destroyed after death or after spending some time period in hell, because your sin was not eternal, obviously.
If the Catholic church is not the Great W-hore referred to in Revelation, or is not the foundation of it, I don't know what is. Here is Revelation 17:1-6,
"Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the judgment of the great w-hore who is seated on many waters, with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.” And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns. The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality. And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: “Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth’s abominations.” And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus."
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Further reading:
The Second Vatican Council overhauls indulgences (1965)
Here is a list of indulgences you can perform which the Catholic Church says reduces your time in purgatory.
A Christian explanation of Catholic indulgences and why they are false
Christian explanation of what the Catholic view of purgatory is and why it is false
What the bible says about purgatory
Factoid: CS Lewis believed in purgatory
