Things you can do to get time off of Purgatory: help the poor, volunteer, and now… follow the pope on Twitter.
So next week is Catholic World Youth Week in Rio. Attending is one way to knock down the days on your Purgatory stay. But so is following along on Twitter. According to Vatican officials, if you follow @Pontifex for the Catholic Fest, you’ll earn indulgences, or get out of hell free cards. As you may remember from your AP European History class, those are the thing that got a bad rap in pre-Reformation times because the church was selling them for lots and lots of money.
So while you might not be directly buying indulgences today, you can apparently win them via social media savvy. But, the church says, it doesn’t count if you just click the blue follow button and never check back again. You have to be an active follower and also generally repentant. Perfect opportunity to hashtag everything #blessed. [The Guardian]
