Purgatory — The Existence, Nature, and Duration of Purgatory

Chapter 5: Purgatory

Section 1: The Existence of Purgatory

1. Definition. Purgatory (purgatorium) signifies a process of cleansing.

a) Whether it is a place or a state is a controverted question. The poor souls are in a state of transition, but it is not necessary to hold that they are confined in any particular place. St. Thomas intimates that Purgatory is somehow “connected with Hell.”¹ We might with equal probability argue that it is connected with Heaven, because the poor souls are children of God, who are sure sooner or later to be admitted to the abode of the Blessed.²

b) Not all who depart this life in the state of grace are fit to enter forthwith into the beatific vision of God. Some are burdened with venial transgressions. Others have not yet fully expiated the temporal punishments due to their sins.³ It would be repugnant to divine justice to admit such souls to Heaven, into which, according to Holy Writ, nothing defiled shall enter.⁴ Nor can God in his justice consign these souls to Hell. Hence there must be a middle state in which they are cleansed of venial sins, or, if they have not yet fully paid the temporal punishments due to their forgiven sins, must expiate the remainder of them.⁵

2. Dogmatic Definition. The existence of Purgatory was denied by Aerius in the fourth century, and later by the Albigenses, the Hussites, and the so-called Protestant Reformers. The Church has repeatedly defined this dogma; e.g. by the Second Council of Lyons (1274), the Council of Florence (1439), and finally by the Council of Trent.⁶ Calvin, in an oft-quoted passage, called Purgatory “a deadly fiction of Satan, which nullifies the cross of Christ.”⁷ Against this and other errors of the “Reformers” the Council of Florence defined “that the souls of those who … die truly repentant in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction for their sins of commission and omission by worthy fruits of penance, are cleansed after death by the pains of Purgatory, and that for their relief from these pains they are aided by the suffrages of the faithful still living, namely by the sacrifice of the Mass, prayers, alms, and other works of piety.”⁸ The Council of Trent⁹ confirmed this dogma, and in a special decree exhorted “the bishops to see to it, diligently, that the sound doctrine concerning Purgatory … be believed, maintained, taught, and everywhere proclaimed by the faithful of Christ.”¹⁰

Against those who, like Luther, denied that the doctrine of Purgatory can be proved from Scripture,¹¹ we appeal, first of all, to 2 Mach. XII, 43 sqq. This book, it is true, does not belong to the Hebrew canon; but it is part of the Christian, or Alexandrian, canon, and consequently possesses full canonical authority for Catholics. The sacred text reads as follows: “And making a gathering, he [Judas Machabeus] sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection … It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins.”¹² This text plainly indicates a belief among the Jews in the possibility of forgiveness for the departed, hence a state after death in which such forgiveness is still attainable — Purgatory.¹³

Cardinal Bellarmine points out that this belief antedates the Book of Machabees and is embedded in Jewish burial customs still practiced in the time of Christ,¹⁴ and that neither our Lord nor the Apostles ever found fault with the Jews for praying for their dead — a silence which would be inexplicable if the practice were rooted in a superstitious error.¹⁵

Our Lord Himself refers to the possibility of forgiveness in the next world when He says of the sin against the Holy Ghost that “it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, nor in the world to come.”¹⁶ This implies that other, lesser sins can be forgiven in the world to come, that is, after death but before the General Judgment.¹⁷ Such forgiveness cannot take place in Heaven, where there is no sin to forgive, nor in Hell, whence there is no possibility of escape; hence it can only be in Purgatory.

The Fathers testify to the ancient and unbroken practice of praying and offering the Holy Sacrifice for the faithful departed. Tertullian writes that Christians “make oblations for the dead … on the anniversary day”¹⁸ and that a widow “ought to pray for the soul of her [deceased] husband, begging for him refreshment meanwhile, … and offering sacrifice on the anniversaries of his falling asleep.”¹⁹ The refrain “peace and refreshment” is found repeatedly in the earliest Christian sepulchral inscriptions.²⁰ The Acts of Sts. Perpetua and Felicitas record a vision in which the martyr Perpetua saw and prayed for the relief of her deceased brother Dinocrates.²¹ St. Basil the Great speaks of a “place for the purification of souls” and a “cleansing fire.”²² St. Augustine, mourning his mother St. Monica, begs the faithful to remember her at the altar,²³ and elsewhere writes: “It is not to be doubted that the dead are aided by the prayers of holy Church, by the salutary sacrifice, and by the alms which are given for their spirits, that the Lord may deal with them more mercifully than their sins have deserved; for this, which has been handed down by the Fathers, the universal Church observes.”²⁴

Calvin himself admitted that “for thirteen hundred years past it has been the custom to pray for the dead,”²⁵ and the Protestant historian Hase concedes that no doctrine has been so universally believed by Christian antiquity as this one.²⁶

Section 2: Nature and Duration of Purgatory

1. Nature of the Pains of Purgatory. The Church has never defined precisely wherein the pains of Purgatory consist. Two things, however, are certain: (a) the poor souls suffer the pain of loss, i.e. a temporary exclusion from the beatific vision, which is far more painful to them than it would be to us, because they see clearly the infinite beauty and lovableness of God, for whom they yearn with all the ardor of a perfected love; and (b) it is common and probable, though not strictly certain, teaching that they also suffer some kind of pain of sense analogous to, though not identical with, that of Hell.²⁷

Unlike the damned, the souls in Purgatory are confirmed in grace and hence incapable of further sin.²⁸ St. Bonaventure²⁹ and St. Thomas³⁰ teach that they possess perfect charity, unwavering hope of ultimate salvation, and entire submission to the will of God, so that their suffering, however intense, is accompanied by profound peace and even joy, since they know their pains are temporary and their final happiness assured.³¹ This distinguishes Catholic teaching sharply from that of the Russian schismatics, some of whom hold that the fate of souls in the intermediate state remains uncertain until the General Judgment.³²

The classical Scriptural text bearing on the nature of Purgatory is 1 Cor. III, 12 sqq.: “If any man build upon this foundation [Christ] gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble: every man’s work shall be manifest; for the day of the Lord shall declare it, because it shall be revealed in fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work, of what sort it is. If any man’s work abide, which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man’s work burn, he shall suffer loss; but he himself shall be saved, yet so as by fire.”³³ Catholic exegetes generally understand “fire” here in a purgatorial sense, though the precise reference of the passage has been much debated.³⁴ St. Ambrose paraphrases: “When Paul says, ‘yet so as by fire,’ he indeed shows that such a one will be saved, but that he will suffer the pain of fire, so that, being purged by the fire, he may be saved.”³⁵

Some of the Greek Fathers, notably Origen, conceived the purifying fire in a broader and more speculative sense, extending even to a purification of all rational creatures, including, in Origen’s mistaken view, the demons themselves³⁶ — an error condemned as part of his general theory of apocatastasis.³⁷ Clement of Alexandria speaks of “a spiritual fire,” which does not consume, but discerns souls that have passed through water [Baptism].³⁸ St. Peter Damian likewise speaks of Purgatory in terms suggesting a real, though mysterious, fire.³⁹ St. Gregory the Great says: “Yet we must believe that, as to certain lighter faults, there is a purgatorial fire before the [Last] Judgment.”⁴⁰

Whether this fire, if it exists, is of the same nature as that of Hell, cannot be determined with certainty. Bellarmine writes with characteristic caution: “If there be a real fire, it will be exceedingly severe … if not a real fire, it will be something far more terrible, of a kind God was able to prepare, since He wished to manifest His power in this.”⁴¹

2. Purgatory as a Place of Instruction. Clement of Alexandria conceives Purgatory also as a place of moral and spiritual instruction,⁴² “a second discipline” which completes the education of the soul begun in this life. This aspect of Purgatory, while not part of the defined dogma, harmonizes well with the Church’s understanding of the purifying process as a continuation, under new conditions, of the soul’s growth in holiness.⁴³

3. How Venial Sins Are Remitted in Purgatory. A question much debated among theologians is how, precisely, venial sins still unforgiven at death are remitted in Purgatory, since the souls there are no longer in the state of merit (status merendi) and hence cannot, strictly speaking, merit their own forgiveness.⁴⁴

St. Thomas holds that venial sins are remitted, not through suffering, but through an act of perfect charity toward God, which, though it does not merit a diminution of punishment, nevertheless removes the impediment (the venial fault itself) that would otherwise remain: “Venial sins are remitted to them after this life as regards guilt also, in the same way in which they are remitted in this life, namely, through an act of love of God which is opposed to the venial sins committed in this life. Since, however, after this life there is no longer a state of meriting, that movement of love in them removes indeed the impediment of venial guilt, but does not merit the absolution or diminution of punishment.”⁴⁵ Suarez and other theologians follow this teaching in substance.⁴⁶

4. Duration of Purgatory. The Church has not defined how long the pains of Purgatory last, either for individual souls or collectively until the Last Judgment. Some souls, it is commonly believed, are detained but a short while; others, whose sins were many or grave though forgiven, may suffer for a much longer period, though “longer” and “shorter” in the intermediate state cannot simply be equated with earthly time.⁴⁷

The temporal punishment due to sin, remaining after its guilt is forgiven, may be discharged either actively, through works of satisfaction performed in this life, or passively, through suffering (satispassio) in Purgatory.⁴⁸ The duration of this suffering can be shortened by the suffrages of the living — the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, prayers, almsdeeds, and indulgences — offered on behalf of the departed. The Holy Office has condemned the presumptuous fixing of an exact term, such as the assertion that a perpetual Mass endowment for a soul need not be observed for more than ten years.⁴⁹

Readings: Bellarmine, De Purgatorio. — F.X. Schouppe, S.J., Purgatory Illustrated by the Lives and Legends of the Saints, New York 1893. — Fr. Faber, All for Jesus, ch. 8, “The Souls in Purgatory,” London 1854. — J. Hontheim, S.J., art. “Purgatory,” in the Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. XII, pp. 575–580. — Fr. Schmid, Die Seelenläuterung im Jenseits, Brixen 1907.