Many Protestants mistaking claim that the Catholic Church teaches that one can receive an Indulgence for the remission of sins.

The definition of indulgences presupposes that forgiveness has already taken place; they deal only with punishments left after sins have been forgiven.

CCC 1471 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.

To acquire a plenary indulgence, it is necessary to perform the work to which the indulgence is attached and to fulfill three conditions: sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion, and prayer for the intentions of the supreme pontiff. It is further required that all attachment to sin, even to venial sin, be absent. If this disposition is in any way less than complete, or if the prescribed three conditions are not fulfilled, the indulgence will be only partial. (Paul VI, apostolic constitution, Indulgentiarum doctrina )

The Catholic Church made it illegal to read the bible in English

It is often said that the Catholic Church made it illegal to read the bible in the vernacular. The council of Oxford is cited as proof that reading the bible in English was against the law in England. Actually in 1408 the third synod of Oxford, England, after the many errors found in Wycliffe’s English bible, BANNED UNAUTHORIZED English translations of the Bible and decreed that possession of English translation's had to be approved by diocesan authorities first before being used in Church or personnel devotion. This shows that the Catholic Church took seriously its role in protecting and preserving scripture. 


The Oxford council declared: "It is dangerous, as St. Jerome declares, to translate the text of Holy Scriptures out of one idiom into another, since it is not easy in translations to preserve exactly the same meaning in all things. We therefore command and ordain that henceforth no one translate the text of Holy Scripture into English or any other language as a book, booklet, or tract, of this kind lately made in the time of the said John Wyclif or since, or that hereafter may be made, either in part or wholly, either publicly or privately, under pain of excommunication, until such translation shall have been approved and allowed by the Provincial Council. He who shall act otherwise let him be punished as an abettor of heresy and error."

Was the Catholic Church against people hearing God's word in the vernacular? No, because the Catholic Church had already translated the bible into French, Dutch, Polish, Italian and Spanish in the 12th and 13th century. The approved English bible (Douay Rheims) started with the NT in 1578 and was finished by 1582 with the completion of the OT in 1609.

Pre-Wyclif English Translation:

Besides these versions of particular books of Holy Scripture, there existed numerous renderings of the Our Father, the Ten Commandments, the Life, Passion, and Resurrection of Christ, and of the parts read on... Sundays and Feastdays in the Mass. In general, if we may believe the testimony of Archbishop Cranmer, Sir Thomas More, Foxe the martyrologist, and the authors of the Preface to the Reims Testament, the whole Bible was to be found in the mother tongue long before John Wyclif was born (cf. "American Ecclesiastical Review", XXXII, Philadelphia, June, 1905, 594).

Mary was reassured but Zachariah was punished

Why is it that Mary and Zachariah were treated differently by the angel Gabriel in the gospel of Luke?

Why is it that Mary was reassured after her question but Zachariah is punished after asking a similar question?

Lk 1:34-37 But Mary said to the angel, "How can this be, since I have no relations with a man?" And the angel said to her in reply, "The holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, Elizabeth, your relative, has also conceived a son in her old age, and this is the sixth month for her who was called barren; for nothing will be impossible for God."

Lk 1:18-20 Then Zechariah said to the angel, "How shall I know this? For I am an old man, and my wife is advanced in years." And the angel said to him in reply, "I am Gabriel, who stand before God. I was sent to speak to you and to announce to you this good news. But now you will be speechless and unable to talk until the day these things take place, because you did not believe my words, which will be fulfilled at their proper time."

Mary who is “Full of Grace” (Lk 1:28) and is blessed (Lk 1:48) is reassured and Zachariah, an elderly priest who is worthy of double honor (1 Tim 5:17) is punished.