Presentation on purgatory provided to the women of Walking With Purpose, St. Monica Parish (March 8, 2018)

2. • What is it?
• Where did the idea come from?
• Sacred Scripture
• SacredTradition
• Objections?
• Why does it matter?
• John Paul II
• Existential Personalism
• Contemporary Issues

3. Purgatory … A Definition
•A "purification, so as to achieve
the holiness necessary to enter
the joy of heaven." (CCC 1030)
• “This final purification of the
elect . . . is entirely different
from the punishment of the
damned" (CCC 1031).
Levels of heaven like
Levels of Purgatory?

4. Particular (or individual)
Judgment:
1. ”It is appointed for men to die
once, and after that comes
judgment" (Heb. 9:27).
2. We are judged instantly and
receive our reward, for good or ill.
3. We know at once what our final
destiny will be.
“Second Coming:”
1. When Jesus returns, there will
come the general judgment.
2. "When the Son of man comes in his
glory, and all the angels with him,
then he will sit on his glorious
throne. Before him will be gathered
all the nations, and he will separate
them one from another as a
shepherd separates the sheep from
the goats." (Matthew 25:31-32)
3. In this general judgment all our
sins will be publicly revealed (Luke
12:2–5).

6. • Nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in
heaven (Revelation 21:27)
• While we may die with our mortal sins forgiven,
there can still be many impurities in us,
• Especially venial sins and temporal punishment due
to sins already forgiven.

7. For Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the
sake of the unrighteous, that he might lead you to God. In
it he also went to preach to the spirits in prison.”
(1 Peter 3:18-20)
What about souls who
died before Jesus
walked the earth?

8. • Christ:The sinner "will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to
come" (Matt. 12:32)
• St. Paul:When we are judged, each man’s work will be tried. And what
happens if a righteous man’s work fails the test? "He will suffer loss,
though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15).
• This loss - this penalty:
• Can’t refer to hell - no one is saved there
• Cant’ refer to heaven - there is no suffering ("fire") there.
• Both suggest one can be freed after death of the consequences of
one’s sins.

9. (2 Macc. 12:43–45).

11. • ”Temporary punishments are suffered –
• By some in this life only,
• By others after death,
• By others both now and then,
• …but, all of them before that last and strictest judgment"
• (St. Augustine,The City of God, 21:13).
• It is between the particular and general judgments that
the soul is purified of the remaining consequences of sin
• "I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very
last copper" (Luke 12:59).

12. Saint Catherine of Genoa

13. Fundamentalist Objections
• Catholic Church "invented" the doctrine of purgatory to make
money,
• …but they have difficulty saying just "when.
• “Professional” anti-Catholics place the blame on Pope Gregory
the Great’s Dialogues (A.D. 590–604).
• ”As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the FinalJudgment,
there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy
against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come.
From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this
age, but certain others in the age to come.”

14. Counter-Argument
• The request of St. Monica (4th Century)
• Asked her son to remember her soul in his Masses.
• Makes no sense if her soul would not benefit from prayers.
• Graffiti in the catacombs (1st, 2nd and 3rd Centuries)
• During persecutions - recorded prayers for the dead.
• Earliest Christian writings outside the NewTestament (Acts of
Paul andThecla and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity (2nd
Century)
• Prayers would be offered only if Christians believed in purgatory
(even if the word wasn’t used yet)

15. Stipends: ( )
• Biblical Principles:
• “The laborer is worth his wage.” (Luke 10:7)
• “All those who preside at the altar share the altar’s offerings (1
Cor. 9:13–14).
• Canon Law:
• In the United States, commonly five – ten dollars;
• A few freely offer more.The
• indigent do not have to pay anything.
• Priests only allowed to receive one such stipend per day.
• Comment: No one gets rich on five dollars a day, and certainly not
the Church, which does not receive the money anyway.

18. • A philosophy developed by KarolWojtyła & priests
• University of Lublin (Poland)
• Developed to counter atheistic philosophy of Communism.
• Attempted to unify:
• Existence (Does anything exist? If so, does it have to be
physical?)
• Personal consciousness (Rational thinking and reason)
• Human anthropology (What does it mean to be “human?”
What is a “person?”)
• Ethics. (What “ought” I do and not do?)

19. Two questions:
1.What is there?
2. And what is it like?
An example:
SEX !

20. • Existence
• Does it exist?
• If so, is it just about the physical?
• Personal Consciousness (Rational thinking and reason)
• Human anthropology
• What does it mean to be “human?” (“homo sapiens”)
• What is a “person?”
• So, what’s it for?
• Ethics
• What “ought” I do and not do?
• Why?

21. • Personalism –You become what you do.
• What is your “standard?”
• Rational Existence –What is “human?”What is “inhuman?”
• Religion
• Human sexuality
• Economics

22. WalkingWithPurpose
St. Monica Parish
March 8, 2018