The Sixth World Meeting of Families is taking place in Mexico City, beginning today and concluding Sunday.

The Vatican has announced that Pope Benedict XVI will grant a plenary indulgence to Catholics who “participate devotedly” in the event, Catholic News Agency reported Jan. 13.

“An indulgence is a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven, which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain prescribed conditions through the action of the Church which, as the minister of redemption, dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions of Christ and the saints,” states the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “An indulgence is partial or plenary according as it removes either part or all of the temporal punishment due to sin” (no. 1471).

The Vatican decree regarding the indulgence for participation in the World Meeting of Families states it can be obtained “under the usual conditions: sacramental Confession, Eucharistic communion, prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff, and with the soul completely detached from any form of sin.”

The indulgence, which Catholics can apply to themselves or to the dead, can also obtained by those who can’t attend the gathering “under the same conditions if, united in spirit and heart with the faithful present in Mexico City, they and their families recite the Our Father and the Creed, or other devout prayers … especially at the moments in which the words and messages of the Pontiff are being transmitted by television and radio,” the decree stated.

Internet radio and TV coverage of the World Meeting of Families will be provided by Catholic.net, Zenit reported yesterday, and EWTN will also broadcast the event.

— Tom McFeely