On All Souls Day, Cameron Riecker posted a list of actions one can do to receive a plenary indulgence. This plenary indulgence could then be gifted to a soul in purgatory to free them. In the post, Cameron said, "From Nov 1–8, the Church grants a plenary indulgence, applicable to the souls in purgatory, each day you: 1. Visit a cemetery and pray for the dead (even silently) 2. Go to confession (within about 20 days before or after) 3. Receive Holy Communion 4. Pray for the Pope's intentions (an Our Father and Hail Mary is enough) 5. Be detached from all sin, even venial Today only (All Souls Day): you can also gain one by visiting a church and praying the Our Father and the Creed." This led to a variety of Protestant responses, some angry, some mocking. Ryan of needGod.net compared it to an infomercial: “Get a free toaster if you order in the next 30 minutes” 😂. Others said this was why the reformation was necessary - forgetting that Martin Luther fully accepted the doctrine of indulgences at the time he started his rebellion against the Church. But one recurring question caught my eye, because I had never heard a Catholic give a satisfactory answer to it before. If the Pope has the authority to free souls from purgatory using indulgences, why doesn't he just free them all at once? If he can't free them directly, then why not make plenary indulgences so easy to acquire that they become infinitely abundant? Before we answer that question, I want to give a brief overview of indulgences, purgatory, and what Scripture says about these things. Let's take a look at John 20:21-23: Therefore, he said to them again: “Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” When he had said this, he breathed on them. And he said to them: “Receive the Holy Spirit. Those whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them, and those whose sins you shall retain, they are retained.” Here, Jesus gives the Apostles (and, thus, the Church) authority over sin. This is important because the punishment for sin has 2 aspects: eternal and temporal. We're all familiar with the eternal consequences of sin. If we die without repenting of our sin we will end up in hell for eternity. However, even when we do repent and receive forgiveness through Confession, there still may be temporal consequences. There are some clear examples in Scripture. "And David said to Nathan, “I have sinned against the Lord.” And Nathan said to David: “The Lord has also taken away your sin. You shall not die. Yet truly, because you have given occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, because of this word, the son who was born to you: dying he shall die.”" 2 Samuel (2 Kings) 12:13–14 · Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV) In the above quote, we see that David was forgiven of his sin, but there would still be a grave temporal consequence. "And, calling an assembly, he sent twelve thousand drachmas of silver to Jerusalem, to be offered for a sacrifice for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously about the resurrection, (for if he had not hoped that those who had fallen would be resurrected, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead,) and because he considered that those who had fallen asleep with piety had great grace stored up for them. Therefore, it is a holy and beneficial thought to pray on behalf of those who have passed away, so that they may be released from sins." 2 Maccabees 12:43–46 · Catholic Public Domain Version (CPDV) Again, in the above quote there is a sacrifice offered to atone for sins of men who had recently died. If they had been condemned to eternity apart from God, this sacrifice would be pointless. Yet, if they were spared the eternal consequence and only faced temporal consequences, then this would be 'a holy and beneficial thought'. There are many other examples, but this will suffice for our purposes. We have gathered that there are eternal and temporal guilts for sin, and that acts of charity and piety can atone for the temporal guilt of sin. Further, these acts can be done on behalf of others who are already dead, as seen in 2 Maccabees above. Far from an invention of the medieval Catholic Church, this was understood by early Christians as well. Tertullian wrote clearly about offering masses for the dead in the early 3rd Century. St. John Chrysostom in the early 5th Century wrote that acts of charity could be offered on behalf of departed souls. "Let us weep for these; let us assist them according to our power; let us think of some assistance for them, small though it be, yet still let us assist them. How and in what way? By praying and entreating others to make prayers for them, by continually giving to the poor on their behalf." St. John Chrysostom · Homilies on Philippians St. Augustine echoes this in his Enchiridion: "Nor can it be denied that the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of their living friends, who offer the sacrifice of the Mediator, or give alms in the church on their behalf. But these services are of advantage only to those who during their lives have earned such merit, that services of this kind can help them. For there is a manner of life which is neither so good as not to require these services after death, nor so bad that such services are of no avail after death; there is, on the other hand, a kind of life so good as not to require them; and again, one so bad that when life is over they render no help." St. Augustine · Enchiridion (Handbook on Faith, Hope and Love) Now to the question at hand. If the pope can set terms for plenary indulgences, which can then be used to free souls from Purgatory, then why not just free all the souls at once? For one, Jesus gave the Church authority over the sins of the living, not the dead. So the pope has no authority to declare forgiven the temporal consequences of every departed soul undergoing purgation. So indulgences can only be acquired by the living and then offered up for souls undergoing purgation. They cannot be directly given to souls in purgatory by the Church. But this doesn't answer the question completely, because the Church could still hypothetically make plenary indulgences so easy to get that everyone can offer thousands per day for souls in purgatory. Yet the criteria for acquiring plenary indulgences and the limitations around them make this impossible. Why? Interestingly, the Council of Trent addresses this directly. In Session XXV of the Decree Concerning Indulgences, it is said, "In granting [indulgences], however, It desires that, in accordance with the ancient and approved custom in the Church, moderation be observed; lest, by excessive facility, ecclesastical discipline be enervated." Let's flesh out this quote. It should first be noted that indulgences are not a requirement for someone to get to heaven. The souls in purgatory will one day reach heaven, with or without the help of plenary indulgences. The reason we help them is because charity compels us to. If we are of the same Body of Christ, and the Scriptures tell us to intercede for one another, then it would signal a lack of love for the Body of Christ if we were to ignore the Church Suffering. The Church, by providing clear guidance on how to help the faithful departed through plenary indulgences, assists us in directing our charity. But that charity would be cheapened if it required no real sacrifice on our part. The practice of indulgences gives us an opportunity to do something pious and/or charitable to acquire a spiritual gift that we can give or keep for ourselves. If, instead, the practice ceases to involve pious or charitable acts (which tend to be more difficult than impious or mundane acts), then no virtue is being encouraged. This could easily lead the faithful to misunderstand what love and sacrifice really mean. Let's imagine the pope declared that every time you say the word 'the' you receive a plenary indulgence. Someone could accumulate hundreds to thousands of plenary indulgences each day and offer them for souls undergoing purgation. This allows the individual to feel as though they are charitable, because of the great benefit they are offering to those souls, while requiring no sacrifice at all. That low of a bar means this person will consider it even more of a burden when they are asked to make real sacrifices for others. The cheapening of indulgences would make real sacrifices seem all the more expensive. There is also a real question as to whether something this 'cheap' would be acceptable by God. While the Church has authority to forgive sins or withhold forgiveness thereof, it doesn't follow that it can wave a magic wand and declare the world's sins forgiven. Even when a Catholic goes to confession, their sins are only forgiven if they are truly contrite. Simply telling a priest a sin you committed won't get you forgiven if you are not truly sorry for that sin and if you fully intend to commit it again. Similarly, it's not clear that the Church would be able to grant plenary or partial indulgences for mundane or thoughtless tasks. Ultimately, offering indulgences on behalf of the departed is more of a prayer than a direct transfer. William Kent in the 1999 Catholic Encyclopedia puts it this way: "God alone knows what penalty remains to be paid and what its precise amount is in severity and duration. Finally, some indulgences are granted in behalf of the living only, while others may be applied in behalf of the souls departed. It should be noted, however, that the application has not the same significance in both cases. The Church in granting an indulgence to the living exercises her jurisdiction; over the dead she has no jurisdiction and therefore makes the indulgence available for them by way of suffrage (per modum suffragii), i.e. she petitions God to accept these works of satisfaction and in consideration thereof to mitigate or shorten the sufferings of the souls in Purgatory." William Kent · The Catholic Encyclopedia: Indulgences · Section on application to the departed (1910) So even if the Church cheapened indulgences, it could be that God would simply reject their application to the souls undergoing purgation. Pope St. John Paul II put it this way: "This "distribution" should not be understood as a sort of automatic transfer, as if we were speaking of "things"." St. John Paul II · General Audience · September 29, 1999, §§4–5 1999 While we now have our answer, I also want to discuss how it is actually not all that hard to acquire a plenary indulgence. To recap, the Church doesn't simply lower the bar for plenary indulgences in order to maximize the number of souls freed from purgatory because 1. This would cease to encourage virtue in the faithful and would warp their view of love and sacrifice, and 2. The application of plenary indulgences to souls undergoing purgation is not necessarily automatic and could be rejected by God if we were to try to abuse this grace. The abuse of indulgences can even be a sin, thus harming those who seek to do so. Catholic Answers has a comprehensive article on indulgences here: https://www.catholic.com/tract/indulgences-catholic-answers-guide-to-partial-and-plenary-indulgences. In it, they list out some activities that could grant one a plenary indulgence. Among these are reciting the rosary with a group. The rosary takes 20 minutes to recite. Meditating on the Gospel for 20 minutes is quite a small task for receiving remission of temporal guilt. One could do this every day and receive that same spiritual benefit each time. Of course, you must also be a Catholic in good standing, have gone to confession in the last 20 days, as well as be detached from sin. Don't get me wrong, that's not nothing. But it's a relatively small task for delivering someone into the presence of God. So for the Protestant who thinks indulgences are nonsensical and uses the 'why not free all souls from Purgatory?' argument, I hope this article helps answer your question! If not, I'd love to hear why it fails to do so. Cheers and God bless!