In Catholic theology, an indulgence was the full or partial remission of temporal punishment due for sins which have already been forgiven.

Purgatory and indulgences address the temporal punishment for sin, and exercise of God's justice.

The temporal punishment that follows sin is thus undergone either during life on earth or in purgatory.

There is no such thing as purgatory, a state after death where one suffers temporal punishments before entry into heaven.

An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven.

It speaks of the temporal punishment for sin, even in this life, as a matter of "sufferings and trials of all kinds".

The Church employed a system of rituals to atone for temporal punishment due to sins known as penance.

Missing from the forgiveness mantra is its reconciliation corollary: "temporal punishment due to sin."

Some of the cardinals and bishops should suffer that temporal punishment.

A plenary indulgence represents to Catholics a release from temporal punishment for sin.