Rome Newsroom, Dec 10, 2020 / 08:30 am (CNA).- Pope Francis has decreed a Year of St. Joseph in which Catholics will have the opportunity to obtain a special plenary indulgence.
Until December 2021, there are many new ways that Catholics can receive an indulgence, including entrusting their daily work to the protection of St. Joseph the Worker or reciting the rosary with their families.
These acts must be accompanied by sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the pope’s intentions, the usual conditions to obtain any plenary indulgence.
Plenary indulgences remit all temporal punishment due to sin and must be accompanied by full detachment from sin.
According to the decree issued by the Apostolic Penitentiary on Dec. 8, there are 15 ways to receive an indulgence in the Year of St. Joseph:
1) Participate in a spiritual retreat for at least one day that includes a meditation on St. Joseph.
2) Pray for St. Joseph’s intercession for the unemployed that they might find dignifying work.
3) Recite the Litany of St. Joseph for persecuted Christians. Byzantine Catholics have the option of an Akathist to St. Joseph.
4) Entrust one’s daily work and activity to the protection of St. Joseph the Worker.
5) Follow St. Joseph’s example in performing a corporal work of mercy. These include feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, visiting the imprisoned, visiting the sick, and burying the dead.
6) Perform one of the spiritual works of mercy, such as comforting the sorrowful, counseling the doubtful, instructing the ignorant, admonishing the sinner, bearing wrongs patiently, forgiving injuries, and praying for the living and the dead.
7) Pray the rosary together with one’s family in order that “all Christian families may be stimulated to recreate the same atmosphere of intimate communion, love and prayer that was in the Holy Family.”
8) Engaged couples can also receive an indulgence from praying the rosary together.
9) Meditate for at least 30 minutes on the Lord’s Prayer, because St. Joseph “invites us to rediscover our filial relationship with the Father, to renew fidelity to prayer, to listen and correspond with profound discernment to God’s will.”
10) Pray an approved prayer to St. Joseph on St. Joseph Sunday, the Sunday after Christmas in the Byzantine Catholic tradition.
11) Celebrate the feast of St. Joseph on March 19 with an act of piety in honor of St. Joseph.
12) Pray an approved prayer to St. Joseph on the 19th of any month.
13) Honor Joseph with an act of piety or approved prayer on a Wednesday, the day traditionally dedicated to St. Joseph.
14) Pray to St. Joseph on the Feast of the Holy Family on Dec. 29.
15) Celebrate the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1 with an act of piety or prayer.
“All the faithful will thus have the opportunity to commit themselves, with prayers and good works, to obtain with the help of St. Joseph, head of the celestial Family of Nazareth, comfort and relief from the serious human and social tribulations that today afflict the contemporary world,” the decree signed by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza said.
The elderly, the sick, and the dying who are unable to leave their homes due to the coronavirus pandemic also have special permission to receive an indulgence by “offering with trust in God the pains and discomforts” of their lives with a prayer to St. Joseph, hope of the sick and patron of a happy death.
The decree noted that in this instance the person must have the intention of fulfilling, as soon as possible, the three usual conditions for an indulgence, as well as a detachment from sin.
The Apostolic Penitentiary permits any prayer to St. Joseph approved by the Church, mentioning in particular the “To you, O blessed Joseph” prayer composed by Pope Leo XIII:
“To you, O blessed Joseph, do we come in our tribulation, and having implored the help of your most holy Spouse, we confidently invoke your patronage also. Through that charity which bound you to the Immaculate Virgin Mother of God and through the paternal love with which you embraced the Child Jesus, we humbly beg you graciously to regard the inheritance which Jesus Christ has purchased by his Blood, and with your power and strength to aid us in our necessities.”
“O most watchful guardian of the Holy Family, defend the chosen children of Jesus Christ; O most loving father, ward off from us every contagion of error and corrupting influence; O our most mighty protector, be kind to us and from heaven assist us in our struggle with the power of darkness.”
“As once you rescued the Child Jesus from deadly peril, so now protect God’s Holy Church from the snares of the enemy and from all adversity; shield, too, each one of us by your constant protection, so that, supported by your example and your aid, we may be able to live piously, to die in holiness, and to obtain eternal happiness in heaven. Amen.”
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Um, he should be retired & sent to the Mr mccarick home for mitres gone south…
All of humanity was created by God. As Christians we are called to love God above all things, with all our hearts, with all our souls and with all our minds and TO LOVE OUR NEIGHBOR AS OURSELVES. I think that includes Muslims.
To truly love someone is to desire and will what is best for them, in this life and the life to come. Is it better for Muslims to stay Muslim, or to hear the Gospel and, by God’s grace, become Catholic?
Many Christian missionaries through the ages, including several early Franciscans who were stoned to death in Morocco, have given their lives for testifying and preaching the Gospel among the followers of the religion of peace. Many more Christians have been killed and enslaved by the triumphant armies of the religion of peace. See this scholarly interview by CWR Fr. Connolly:
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2020/12/16/the-forgotten-history-of-christian-slavery-under-islam/
Of course Miss Rosemary. Neighbor means neighbor. We don’t exclude anyone from that love. God made us all.
Ah yes, but Christ Has Revealed True Love requires desiring Salvation for one’s beloved, so how can one be Loving anyone if they first and foremost do not desire that person’s Salvation?
I agree.
I think Leo has lost his mind establishing a prayer room at the Vatican for islamists. I doubt if Orthodox Christian Church would hear anything of this nonsense.
Indeed. The Orthodox Churches have had Islam rattling their gates for 1400 years. The know exactly what is at risk.
I was hoping he would be different, but it’s becoming more apparent that Pope Leo is a Francis clone.
I look forward to the new welcoming of immigrants by the Vatican.
To borrow and injunction, Pope Leo, tear down those walls.
TPR: instead of asking Uganda to accept our criminal “migrants”, I think we ought to advocate sending all of our illegal aliens to the Vatican. They’ll be delighted to receive them all as they would Christ. One million illegals should fit comfortably inside those wall of Vatican City State
Yes,, Yes Yes I completely agree with you.
Redux you are not making sense.
Here is your recent comment in Chapp’s CWR article on Dilexit.
‘ DiogenesRedux
October 14, 2025 at 1:10 am
ELIAS GALY: Are you advocating the weaponizatuon of the Eucharist to advance a political cause? Because that’s exactly what this was. I hope you’re not virtue signaling. ‘
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2025/10/10/reflections-on-dilexi-te-the-first-magisterial-document-of-leo-xivs-papacy/
Presumably the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State is responsible for overseeing the Vatican’s forward-looking abortion initiatives?
At least Cupich should be able to count on the support of abortion expert and Dark Vatican friend Senator Durbin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HWqKPWO5T4o
Bingo. The same analogy came up in discussion the other day with daily communicants. We observe a boy’s club, the faithful abandoned while the lads climb the ladder and proclaim their personal truths as doctrine.
It doesn’t cut the mustard.
Deep State Leo.
The good news Cupich is leaving Chicago. The bad news is that Pope Leo next selection will likely be similar to Cupich.
The news will be news when the appointment is made! Not before. If you must speculate, speculate with Charity.
A “promotion” to the 109-acre Vatican city-state, rather than to a dicastery of the Holy See. And, as in the United States, when some House members are elected to the Senate, this can improve the average IQ of both houses. Waiting now to see who will replace Cardinal Cupich in Chicago…
Groundskeeper at the Leo XIV estate is nothing to sneer about. Besides there’s the camaraderie of two windy men from the Windy City.
A charitable construction of this appointment is that Cupich has been kicked upstairs to a largely ineffectual post at the Vatican. He’ll likely do less damage there than in Chicago.
I’m shocked, shocked I tell you. Most all the American catholic media outlets and pundits have been assuring us Leo wasn’t Francis 2.0 and claiming Leo didn’t side with Cupich in the Derbin award scandal. Not only has Leo not accepted Cupich’s resignation, he’s now given him yet another position, also meaning Cupich is staying on in Chicago for the foreseeable future.
I had such Hope, such joy at Pope Leo’s election. I thought I saw in him a good man, a holy man. But, no I was mistaken. It hurts my heart to see he really is Francis 2.0, as the saying goes. I remind myself that God is in charge so all is unfolding in accordance with his will.
His Will or His permissive will?
God does not Will that we accommodate a blasphemy of The Holy Ghost, due to the hardening of our hearts.
God wills that we are Faithful and Abide In The Word Of God Incarnate.
Every day I am more disappointed in Francis 2.0. Is this a reward for the havoc and cruelty Cupich has wreaked in Chicago? Nothing on China as they advance with their control of the Church; no ultimatums to those committing ACTUAL genocide of Christians in Nigeria; a big increase in the number of bishops in the US denying the TLM and sneering at altar rails, kneeling for communion, etc (why? because they KNOW Leo is Francis Lite, Francis with kinder words and the trick of wearing traditional vestments)…. but Cupich gets this.
If only we could hope and trust that this appointment was in the best interests of God…
And the damage to the Church continues
A meaningless membership shared with 5 other Cardinals, and a President (Sister Petrini!) and two Secretaries-General on top. Perhaps a first feathered step in getting the over-age Cupich out of Chicago and maybe out of the country and into regal Vatican episcopal obscurity?
My thought as well…when somebody high up the food chain causes a major scandal for the CEO, promoting them somewhere where they can do less damage is SOP. Will have to see who is tapped to replace him before commencing hair pulling, but frankly, past reinstituting pomp and circumstance, have yet to see much of any getting back on course for the Church…not yet, anyhow…
Unless I’m missing something, Cupich will be out of Chicago and US!
This is a sad appointment. I am getting more and more disappointed in this pope as he makes appalling decisions such as appointing Cupich. I am not a Trad! I am a common-sense American Catholic who realizes that promoting the ethics of normalizing homosexual acts in the Church, as in okaying homosexual marriage, is part of Cupich’s plan.
One look at the sordid group of prelates appearing on the loggia with Leo, smiling and glad-handing with each other at his election to the papacy, and it was easy to predict the direction this was going to go. Since he is clearly smarter and more politically astute than was the bombastic, ham-fisted Francis, Leo will probably end up doing far more damage to the Church. God help us…
Let’s get one thing straight: The Catholic Church does not exist to serve the hierarchy (bishops, cardinals and popes). The hierarchy exists to serve the People of God…
Pope Leo is getting close to strike three in my books. Rewarding a cardinal for despicable behavior (honoring the Senate’s most strident pro-abortion member), is a recipe for a disastrous papacy. The verdict is still out, but I am not as hopeful as I had been for this pope. It’s troubling, to say the least.
The Cupich pontificate-by-proxy…twelve more years lies ahead.
Oh dear.
Are we seeing bishop Fulton Sheen’s counter church slowly gaining traction ?
Hope not.
Leo, are you suffering from SDS (Sheen Derangement Syndrome)?
Au contraire.
This remarkable Irish prophet warned about the ape counter church.
One world religion with something for everyone at the Vatican nowadays.
Pachamama if you wish, a Muslim prayer mat in a small Vatican mosque, a seat for a Protestant monarch, pride parades on request, care for creation prayers (rather than true worship to the Creator), a Chinese communist prelate for prayers to Xi.
But please no traddies.
Yes, no traddies!
No reminder of the essence of Catholicism when the existential Church is so far removed… Rather like Dorian Grey, Ecumenical New Church has a queer aversion to mirrors.
Traddies are that mirror.
Demotion by Promotion
Quite a few years ago now ChurchMilitant organised a ranking by vote of the American bishops at the time. Blaise Cupich ranked as the worst.