Pandemic decree (2020)
COVID-19 emergency grant for patients and carers
The decree addressed the 2020 pandemic; continued applicability in 2026 has not been established.
Time required Unverified emergency grant: duration depends on the chosen devotion.
- When
- Pandemic-dependent; no fixed closing date stated
- Where
- Worldwide, under the decree’s emergency circumstances
- Who
- Specified COVID-19 patients in health-authority quarantine and caregivers risking infection
- Application
- Self or the departed
The prescribed work
- For quarantined COVID-19 patients: join a Mass, Rosary, Stations or another devotion through media, or pray the Creed, Our Father and a Marian invocation.
- Offer the trial with faith and charity, detached from sin and intending to fulfil the usual conditions when possible.
- The same conditions covered caregivers risking contagion. Verify applicability before relying on this emergency concession.
The work and its conditions
A plenary indulgence also requires complete detachment from every sin, sacramental confession, Holy Communion, and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, subject to the grant’s stated exceptions. The ordinary limit is one plenary indulgence per day.
Conditions common to every indulgence
The person gaining an indulgence must be baptized, not excommunicated, and in the state of grace at least when the prescribed works are completed. There must be at least a general intention to gain indulgences, and the prescribed work must be performed at the time and in the manner required by the grant.
Read the full conditions and norms. The cited grant and its specific provisions govern.
Time required
Read each branch with its own conditions. An editorial estimate is not a prescribed minimum.
Join Mass or another transmitted devotion
Complete the prescribed event
Length of the prescribed celebration.
No fixed minimum number of minutes is stated. Follow the chosen Mass, Rosary, Stations or other devotion. No single duration covers these alternatives. The emergency grant’s current applicability is not established.
Creed, Our Father and Marian invocation
Editorial estimate
About 2–5 minutes (editorial estimate).
No fixed minimum number of minutes is stated. Editorial estimate for these prayers, not a prescribed minimum. The required offering and dispositions remain necessary; current applicability of the emergency concession is unverified.
What the time estimate excludes
- Ordinary travel to and from the venue, and waiting outside the prescribed work
- Separate confession, Communion and prayer for the Pope’s intentions, except where a branch expressly includes the prescribed celebration
- Stated start
- 19 March 2020
Occasion and source notes
The 19 March 2020 decree was reread on 27 October 2026. It states no fixed closing date, but frames these special concessions in the circumstances of the current epidemic. A competent clarification establishing their present application was not located. This review status is neither a declaration of revocation nor a permanent universal extension. Ordinary indulgenced works remain available under their own grants and conditions.
Prayer texts and resources
Follow the prayer count and formula specified in the requirements. The two Creed readers are alternatives.
Source and exact reference
Prayer texts and grants have separate source histories. Consult the grant source for the prescribed work, occasion, and conditions.