What does the Church teach about Purgatory?

What must be believed as 'of faith' by Catholics is 'that there is a purgatory, and that souls detained in it are helped by the prayers of the faithful.' (Creed of St Pius V).

The efficacy of prayers for the dead was mentioned by Tertullian (160-22- A.D.) who considered this to be a long-established belief in the Church.

That there is fire in purgatory has never been defined by the Church.

The writings of the fathers of the Church, and the conciliar decrees, attest to the antiquity and universality of the belief, and no serious scholar has ever denied it.

All the ancient Mass-liturgies provide for prayers not only for the living, but also for the departed. A list of Patristic and Liturgical texts was even drawn up by the Protestant bishop Ussher (died in 1656) and reprinted in the Oxford Tracts for the Times, No. 72, London, 1837.

At the time of the Protestant reformation the Council of Trent reaffirmed this ancient and universally held belief, saying that Mass may be offered 'for the departed in Christ who are not fully cleansed', and in its decree on purgatory (1563 A.D.) the Council repeated the passage quoted above from the Creed of Pius V and added: 'the same doctrine of purgatory, handed down from the holy Fathers and the sacred Councils, is to be believed and taught'.

The decrees of the First and Second Vatican Councils stress the efficacy of prayers for the dead, and while the Second Vatican Council does not explicitly mention purgatory, its references to Masses for the dead (Decrees On the Liturgy, On The Church) plainly affirm belief in an intermediate state, as the souls of the departed which are in heaven have no need of prayer, and those in hell can derive no benefit from it.

The view that prayers for the dead, and an intermediate state between heaven and hell, should be rejected as unscriptural was utterly foreign to the early Church. Not only did they not deny the efficacy of prayers for the dead, they insisted upon it. And on scriptural grounds.

In fact, the early Church was slow to say even that the Apostles and the martyrs had no need of prayers for God's mercy. Justin Martyr, 100-165 A.D., (Dial, 80) and Irenaeus of Lyons, 130-202 A.D., makes an exception only in the case of martyrs. Origen, 185-253 A.D., says that the Apostles should be prayed for (Hom. In. Lev. Vii, 2: 'Not even the Apostles have yet received their joy').

The religious and cultural gap between the early Church and fundamentalist Protestantism seems too wide ever to be bridged. Lorraine Boettner's claim that death is an automatic entry 'into glory-land' for the Protestant, has no scriptural or historical base, and most serious-minded Protestants would be uneasy about supporting it.

"Rather than ask how long have people held the doctrine of Purgatory, it would be more helpful to ask when it was first denied."

Purgatory and Scripture

Much is made by fundamentalism of the fact that the word 'purgatory' is not mentioned in Scripture. But neither is the word 'Trinity' found, nor 'Sunday observance' nor it should be noted is 'Bible,' 'books of the Gospels,' or 'book of the New Testament'.

Fundamentalist Protestants are in a terrible quandary. On the one hand, the 'reformers' repudiated the Church (quite late in her history, fifteen centuries after she had been founded by Christ) and her divine authority to teach, to bind and to loose; and on the other hand, having rejected the Catholic Church, they found to their dismay that the writings of the Fathers of the Church, even the teachings of the early Church councils, and all Catholic tradition since before the scriptures were even written, logically had to be rejected as well.

That left them with the written text of the New Testament - 27 short books - in fact, written by and for the Church, distributed and preserved by the Church, and approved by the Church.

This last point is overlooked conveniently in fundamentalist tirades against Catholic tradition. They pick and choose among the teachings of the Fathers and the Church Councils, (as well as among the Scriptures) and turn a blind eye to historical claims, lack of logic and abandonment of reason.

What Dryden wrote of the Church of England in the 17^th century, (herself tormented by the ever-growing number of non-conformist Protestant sects that she had produced, through the doctrine of private interpretation of the bible) is generally true of Protestantism today:

'If she reforms by text,
even that's as plain
For her own rebels to
reform again
. . . she cried aloud for aid.

To Church and Councils
whom she first betrayed.
No help from Father's
Tradition's train
Those ancient guides
she taught us to disdain
And by the scripture
which she once abused
To reformation, stands
herself accused.

Catholic tradition, to put it bluntly, is all that stands between non-Catholic Christians and total lack of credibility. Without the Catholic Church and her tradition, they have no way of knowing for sure whether the books they justly revere are genuine or not! I refer Annals readers to the article last year on the Beast of the Apocalypse, and statements made there about that book, and how long it took for it to be accepted by the Church.

The Catch-22 situation for fundamentalists, bible-based Protestant religions, is that the bible is not self-justifying.

Nowhere are we told, 'read the bible,' 'preach the bible', still less 'give yourself to Jesus and be saved'.

Jesus told us to 'preach the gospel,' (Mark, 16,15); 'repent and believe the gospel' (Mark 1,15); to 'listen to the Church' (Matthew 18,17). The Bible is not called 'the pillar and bulwark of truth;' the Church is. (1 Tim, 3,15).

Having rejected the Church, the fundamentalists are left clutching a written scroll like 'common thieves' to use Dryden's image, who while attempting to destroy their parent's home, and usurp his power, steal a priceless heirloom whose true meaning is beyond the power of usurpers to unravel.

Were they all scholars, skilled in textual criticism, and aware of all the hidden subtleties of analogy, and of the importance of a knowledge of epistemology, grammar, and syntax, and could read perfectly Greek, Aramaic, Latin, Hebrew, Syriac, Samaritan and numerous other ancient languages, they would still be light-years away from the heart and meaning of the writings. For they are not the rightful possessors of the treasure.

Possessing only the shell, it is not surprising that this is passed off as the fruit, and the bible, all they possess, is claimed to be all that God said, or wanted to be heard. The 'Christian' mentality that regards the Old and New Testaments as encyclopaedias of knowledge, and the sole of repositories of truth, (akin to the mentality of fundamentalist Muslims who regard the Qur'an in the same way) is peculiar to fundamentalist Protestantism: but what do such people make of St Paul's reference (Ephesians 6,19) to the 'mystery' of the gospel?

However bitter the pill may be to swallow, the only key to understanding 'the truth of the gospel' (Gal. 2,5) and to distinguishing the 'true' gospel from 'other gospels' (Gal. 1,8-9) is the Catholic Church.

Turning to scripture (as this alone will satisfy the fundamentalists) we find numerous texts (too many to be quoted in full) that the Church has always read as applying to this mysterious reality called 'purgatory': 2 Maccabees, 12:46 (prayer for the dead); 2 Tim 1,18 (prayer for Onesiphorus); Matthew 12,32 (sin too malicious to be forgiven either in this world or after death); Luke 12,59 (person won't be freed until the last 'mite' due to God's justice has been paid).

In Luke 16,19ff the rich man (in the story of Dives and Lazarus) is traditionally considered to have ended up in purgatory, because of his charity towards his brothers (impossible in hell) - and even Church of England Bishop Gore declared that this passage clearly pointed to an intermediate state of purification after death.

St Peter (1 Peter 3,19) tells us that between his death and resurrection, Jesus went 'to those spirits that were in prison'. Jesus went 'to those spirits that were in prison'. The Protestant Peake's revised 'Commentary on the Bible' (1962) refers this to the souls of those who died in previous ages. They can't have been in hell (it is eternal) and they weren't in heaven. Where were they?

To fundamentalists who object, like Boettner, that the book of Maccabees 'has no standing' (pp.227-228) a Catholic should ask 'on what authority is it rejected? If the fundamentalists choose to doubt the Catholic Church's canon of Scriptures in the matter of the books of Maccabees, then they have no reason to be sure about any other of the books of the Old or New Testament. They can't have it both ways. The only authority on which their 'faith' rests is, however unpalatable this may be, the authority of the Catholic Church.

PRAYER OF ERASMUS

To remain a worth member of the Catholic Church

I thank thee, Jesus Christ, for they unutterable
charity in stooping to redeem mankind by thy
own death. I beseech thee, let not thy sacred blood
be she for me in vain, but ever with they body
regenerate my soul, and with thy blood give life
to my spirit. So may I, growing up in virtue, become
a worthy member of they mystical Body the Church.
And may I never withdraw from that sacred
covenant which thou, breaking bread with thy
chosen disciples at the Last Supper, and passing
round the cup, didst make with them, and through
them with all who by means of baptism are
admitted to thy fellowship.

Erasmus of Rotterdam [1466-1536]
was one of the greatest figures of the Renaissance

Antiquity of belief in Purgatory

Rather than ask how long have people held the doctrine of purgatory, it would be more helpful to ask when it was first denied.

The only person in ancient times known by name to have objected to the efficacy of prayers and Masses for the departed was a certain fourth century priest, Arius. His problems seem to have sprung from disappointment at not being made a bishop, and he left the Catholic Church and founded a sect that bore his name.

St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.) discusses the opinion of Arius (De Haer. liii) and points out that the custom of praying for the dead, and especially of having Masses offered for them, was universally held throughout the Christian world. Epiphanius (315-403 A.D.) traces the belief in such prayers to the times of the Apostles. (Haer. lxxv,8)

We have to wait until 1580 to find the Protestants denouncing the 'Roman Anti-Christ,' and for the first time repudiating the Catholic Church's belief in purgatory, and offering of prayers for the dead.

St John Chrysostom (345-407 A.D.) comments: 'It is not without good reason ordained by the Apostles, that mention should be made of the dead in the Tremendous Mysteries (Mass) because they know well that these will receive great benefit from it. (Hom. 3, in Ep. ad Philip.)

Cyprian of Carthage (200-258 A.D.) wrote frequently and at length on the subject of prayers for the dead, and purgatory. We quote from his fifty second Epistle: 'It is one thing to waiting for pardon; another to attain to glory: one thing to be sent to prison and not to go there from there until the last farthing has been paid; and another to receive immediately the reward of faith and virtue: one thing to suffer lengthy torments for sin, and to be chastised and purified for a long time in that fire: another to have cleansed away all sin by suffering.'

The 'suffering' Cyprian is referring to is that of martyrdom.

The testimony of the Church Fathers to belief in Purgatory and the efficacy of prayers for the dead is too frequent and well-known to be denied. St Cyril of Jerusalem, Eusebius of Casesarea, St Epiphanius, St Ambrose, St Jerome, St Augustine - to mention only the better known - are unanimous in upholding this traditional Catholic doctrine.

St. Augustine (Sermon 172, c.2) declares that 'Through the prayers and sacrifices of the Church and alms-deeds, God deals more mercifully with the departed than their sins deserve'. And in his Confessions (Book 9, c.3, xiii, 35) he records his mother Monica' s request that the offer the Sacrifice of the Mass for her 'to obtain the pardon of her sins'.

Hell is concerned with the fruits of sin. Purgatory concerns itself. Dante did not see it as a fearsome, dreadful place; nor should we:

'What different passes,
these, from those we
knew
In Hell! For there, with
Hideous howls of
pain,
And here, with singing,
we are ushered
through!
Reader, I would not
have you turn dis-
mayed
From good resolves, for
Having heard me say
How God ordains our
debts should be
repaid.
Heed not the form of the
Affliction - nay,
Think of what follows;
pray you, think this
woe
Cannot, at worst, out-
last the Judgement
Day.