#11: Purgatory

Do Catholics still believe in Purgatory?

Purgatory is not a popular idea these days, but that probably has more to do with hellfire images from movies and Dante’s Inferno than our Catholic teaching on the subject. 

We Catholics believe that human beings are fundamentally good.  (Note: This is a dramatically different belief than some of our Protestant brothers and sisters who hold that human beings are fundamentally sinful…these two very different starting points impact much of the theology that follows!).

But we Catholics aren’t naïve to sin either.  We recognize the death-dealing realities of war, violence, and greed.  We define sin as anything that keeps us from communion with God, others and our true selves; anything that distances us from God's mercy.  In a word, sin is alienation.

So we believe that Purgatory is simply a time of purification after we die for us to close the gap, to eliminate the alienation that our choices to sin have created.  For truly, who among us, should we, God forbid, get hit by a MacTruck this afternoon would feel completely ready and prepared to meet God?  Maybe a handful among us at best…

Purgatory isn’t necessarily a “place” it’s just something we experience that might happen for all of us in an instant…who knows?  Not our US Catholic Bishops who say, “It is impossible for us to imagine what purgatory is. Our tradition describes it as a purifying fire; an image that recalls that perfect love is achieved by gradual and painful spiritual detachment from selfishness and self-centeredness.”

So, all of us could use a little purification in the end, no?  And for those of us who have turned away from God in a profound way, purgatory is an essential time of grace; an opportunity for us to recognize God’s great love for us perhaps for the very first time.  And because the closer we are to the light the more we are able to see our own imperfections, purgatory is one last opportunity to genuinely repent and accept God's forgiveness. 

Fr. James Martin, S.J. says “We pray for those in purgatory. Now this doesn't make sense to many people, even to some Catholics. But here's how I like to think about that:  We’re all part of the great Communion of Saints and death doesn’t end that bond.  So as part of that communion, that community, we pray for those who are in purgatory. We ask God to help them open their hearts to God's mercy.

In short, we all sin. We are all reluctant to admit that we are wrong, and we all need grace to accept God's mercy. How much more will we need all those things after we have died. So we all need help. And as part of the communion of the saints, with prayer we can help those who have gone before us.”

Here is our “official” Catholic stance from the Catechism (1030-1031):

All who die in God’s grace & friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven. The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.

So, Purgatory simply recognizes that we are not perfect and do not automatically merit heaven without making some type of amends for our bad choices.

However, we also trust implicitly that God’s mercy is infinitely greater than any sin we could ever commit. Our faith in a loving God assures us that we are not so evil as to merit eternal separation from God (hell) either.