[Question]{.underline}: Do I have to pray for Pope Benedict XVI’s intentions to gain indulgences?
[Answer]{.underline}: It is certainly very true that one of the conditions imposed by the Church for gaining any indulgence is that one prays for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff. This is perfectly reasonable and licit, since an indulgence is a special favor of the pope himself, using his power to loose and bind, by which he applies the treasury of the Church---that is, the merits of Christ, the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the saints to loosen a part or all of the temporal punishment due for sin.
Some might object by saying that the pope’s personal intentions are, at least to some extent, in fact destructive of the Church, since they are on a purely natural level and promote ecumenism; the recognition of the values of liberty, fraternity, and equality of the Enlightenment that build up a new humanity; and the promotion of the feeling that salvation is possible through all religions. Examples of this are given in the special prayer intentions of Pope Benedict XVI for each month, for example, for March 2008: “That the importance of forgiveness and reconciliation between individuals and peoples may be understood and that through her testimony the Church may spread Christ’s love, the source of new humanity,” for June 2008: “That Christians may use literature, art, and the media to greater advantage to favor a culture which defends and promotes the values of the human person,” and for August 2008: “That the human family may learn to respect God’s plan for the world and become ever more aware that Creation is God’s great gift.”
However, when we pray for the intentions of the Sovereign Pontiff, this does not mean that we pray for his personal intentions, as defective as they can be, the pope being human. We pray for the intentions of the pope as Vicar of Christ and Sovereign Pontiff, as Christ’s representative in the government and teaching of the Church, not inasmuch as he is a private individual. This was clearly explained by Father Hagedorn in 1924 in his “General Legislation on Indulgences,” p. 119: “Obviously the ‘intentio pontificis’ [= the intention of the pope] refers to the mind of the pope, not as an individual, but to the purposes that are near his heart as the Vicar of Christ and the visible head of the Church.”
It is for this reason that the intentions we pray for are fixed and determined, as declared by the Authentic Decree of the Congregation of Indulgences quoted in Prummer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis, III, §556: “The intention of the Sovereign Pontiff, for which prayers are to be recited, is: the exaltation of Holy Mother the Church, the extirpation of heresies, the propagation of the Faith, the conversion of sinners, and pax amongst Christian leaders. But it is not required that anyone explicitly have all these special intentions in his mind; it suffices that he pray in general according to the intention of the Sovereign Pontiff.” Other moral theologians state the same---e.g., Merkelbach, Summa Theologiae Moralis, III, §674, who nevertheless summarizes these intentions a little differently: “for the exaltation and prosperity of the Catholic Church, for the extirpation of heresies and conversion of all those in error, and for peace and unity of the entire Christian people.”
Consequently, we ought to pray for the Holy Father’s intention to gain the plenary indulgence attached to the Way of the Cross or our family rosary. The Church does not generally determine which prayers are said, and the current legislation (Norm 10) published in 1969 states: “The condition of praying for the Supreme Pontiff’s intentions is fully satisfied by reciting one Our Father and one Hail Mary; nevertheless the individual faithful are free to recite any other prayer according to their own piety and devotion toward the Supreme Pontiff.” In doing this, we have the general intention of praying for the true good of the Church of which the pope is the visible head, and not for any particular intention of this particular pope. We ought, therefore, to have no scruples in accomplishing this condition to gain indulgences, although we are fully aware that Benedict XVI’s personal intentions are the introduction of the principles of the French Revolution (e.g. liberty for all religions) and of ecumenism that are destroying the Church from within.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.