The Catholic Church sold these with the purpose of forgiving people's sins?

Roman Catholic AnswerThe Catholic Church has never sold anything to "take away sins". This is a common canard based on a misunderstanding of indulgences. Indulgences have nothing to do with taking away sin or forgiving sin. The whole doctrine of indulgences and purgatory are based on the damage that we do by our sins. God, in His great and loving mercy, forgives us our sins, entirely gratuitiously, if we are willing to humble ourselves and go to confession. The damage we have caused, however, is still ours to repair. This parallels our life, if you are a child playing Baseball and you break a neighbor's window and ask for forgiveness, the neighbor might well forgive you, but you are still responsible for paying to have the window fixed. Our sins caught damage, a lot of damage, and to others, not just ourselves, we are all part of the human family and many of us are part of the Body of Christ through our Baptism. Indulgences and purgatory are to do with the damage done FROM ALREADY FORGIVEN SINS, and there was some trouble, at one point, with indulgences given for donations to build churches. Remember, though, this was confusion on the part of the people involved. I repeat, the Church has never, ever sold anything to take away sins.