What is Purgatory?

The doctrine

Catholic teaching holds that at the moment of death, every human soul faces a particular judgment: those who die in the state of grace and are fully purified enter immediately into heaven; those who die in unrepented mortal sin enter into hell. Between these two states, however, the Catholic Church teaches that there is a third condition: the state of those who die in the state of grace but who are not yet fully purified of the temporal effects of sin. These souls undergo a final purification before entering heaven. This purification is what the Catholic Church calls Purgatory.¹

The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches: "All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven" (CCC 1030).

What Purgatory is and is not

Purgatory is:

• Real: a true state of the soul after death, defined as a doctrine of the Catholic faith at the Council of Florence (1439) and reaffirmed at the Council of Trent (Session XXV, 1563).
• Temporary: the souls in Purgatory are certainly saved; the purification ends when the purification is complete, and the soul enters heaven.
• A purification, not a punishment in the legal sense. The image of "punishment" is sometimes used; the more accurate image, drawn from Saint Paul, is that the soul "will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Corinthians 3:15), a purifying fire that burns away what is imperfect and leaves what is good.

Purgatory is not:

• A second chance: the soul in Purgatory is already definitively saved; the purification is the application of what was needed for full holiness, not an opportunity to choose differently.
• A geographical place in the modern sense. The Catholic tradition has not defined Purgatory as a location but as a state. Dante's Purgatorio, with its mountain rising in the southern hemisphere, is poetic, not dogmatic.
• A reflection of God's vindictiveness. The whole doctrine is animated by the love of God for the soul: a love that perfects what is imperfect so that the soul can enter the beatific vision without an unbearable contrast between its remaining sin and the divine holiness.

The scriptural foundation

The biblical basis for the doctrine is found in:

• 2 Maccabees 12:39-46: Judas Maccabeus orders sacrifices to be offered for the dead, that they might be loosed from their sins. The text expressly states: "It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins." This passage is canonical Scripture in the Catholic Bible.
• 1 Corinthians 3:11-15: Saint Paul speaks of those whose work will be tested by fire on the Day of Judgment: those whose work survives will receive a reward; those whose work is burned will suffer loss, "but he himself will be saved, but only as through fire."
• Matthew 12:32: Christ speaks of a sin "that will not be forgiven, either in this age or the age to come," implying that some sins are forgiven in the age to come.

These passages, together with the patristic and liturgical tradition (the practice of praying for the dead is attested from the earliest Christian centuries, especially in the Roman Canon of the Mass), constitute the Catholic foundation for the doctrine.

Praying for the souls in Purgatory

The doctrine of the Communion of Saints holds that the faithful on earth can assist the souls in Purgatory by their prayers, by Masses offered for them, and by the application of indulgences. The traditional Catholic practice of having Masses offered "for the repose of the soul of N." is grounded in this teaching.

The Catholic Church traditionally devotes the entire month of November to prayer for the holy souls in Purgatory. The Solemnity of All Saints (November 1) and the Commemoration of All the Faithful Departed (All Souls Day, November 2) frame the month, and Catholic devotional practice through November includes visits to cemeteries, the praying of the Eternal Rest prayer ("Eternal rest grant unto them, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon them"), and the offering of Masses for the dead.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1030 to 1032, on Purgatory. See also Council of Florence (1439), Decree for the Greeks; Council of Trent (1563), Session XXV, Decree on Purgatory. ↩