User talk:Ritterschaft/Userpage1



Purgatory is, according to Roman Catholic teaching, the process of purification by which, those who die in God’s grace and friendship achieve the holiness necessary for heaven. More generally, the word "Purgatory" is often used to refer to any place or condition of suffering or torment especially one that is temporary.

Within Catholicism, Purgatory is also called the "final purification of the elect". Catholics are taught that Purgatory is experienced only by those souls judged by God at the moment of death to be destined for heaven, and only by those that are not yet perfectly holy. Purgatory involves temporal punishment for venial sin, which is entirely different from the eternal punishment of the damned in hell.

The concept of Purgatory originated from ideas about purification after death in the ancient world among Jews and Christians, and is linked directly to the practice of prayer for the dead and the sense that not everyone who died without being condemned was yet ready for the eternal perfection of heaven. Important theologians, including St. Augustine and St. Gregory the Great, contributed to the understanding of the soul’s purification after death, and by the twelfth century Purgatory had emerged as a fully developed concept, achieving formal doctrinal definition at the Councils of Lyon (1245, 1274), Florence (1439), and Trent (1545-63).

The doctrine contributed greatly to Christian spirituality, ritual, piety, and imagination, giving rise to various devotions and literary works. Historically, descriptions of purgatory have emphasised the natural and supernatural bonding between the living and the dead – the belief that the souls in Purgatory were part of the church of the redeemed, and prayer for the dead, became a principal expression of the ties binding the Christian community together. The teaching became "a powerful symbol of all that the holiness of God requires of man and also of His mercy and His love for men."

Non-Catholic Christians have differing interpretations of the concept. Eastern Orthodox Christians pray for the dead, but teach that after the soul leaves the body it waits for Christ's final judgment. They regard the Roman Catholic view of purgatory and related penitance as needlessly innovative. Protestant reformers of the 16th century came to reject the doctrine, especially because of its relationship with the granting of indulgences. Today, few protestants believe in purgatory.

Purgatory in the authoritative teachings of the contemporary Roman Catholic Church
The Roman Catholic Church does not regard any and all writings or teachings produced by its members to be authoritative. Instead, only a small fraction of the beliefs, teachings, and doctrines proposed by Catholics are ever considered to authoritative. For example, Dante's work The Divine Comedy, although a highly influential catholic work, is not considered to be an authoritative factual exposition of the Roman Catholic afterlife.

Purgatory in The Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, published in 1997, is the official exposition of the teachings of the modern Roman Catholic Church. The section on Purgatory reads:

The section on Indulgences also mentions Purgatory:

Purgatory in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church
The Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, first published in 2005, is a more concise version of the Catechism which presents information in the form of a dialog. It deals with Purgatory in the following exchange:

Sin
The doctrine of Purgatory is intended to be understood in the context of other Catholic beliefs about the afterlife and sin. According to the Catechism, a sin is an offense against God, setting itself against God’s love for us and turning our hearts from God. As such, it is “love of oneself even to contempt of God”. Though all sin, to an extent, damages the person’s relationship with God, the Church makes a distinction between two kinds of sin. Venial sins are lesser faults that wound this relationship, but do not sever it. Mortal sins, on the other hand, are serious offences that constitute a turning away from God on man’s part; they necessitate a new initiative of God’s mercy and a conversion of heart.

Heaven and Hell
At the moment of death, each soul is judged by God according to the person's faith and works. If someone dies in a state of separation from God entailed by mortal sin, then his or her soul is condemned to hell and suffers eternal punishments. Those who die in a state of God’s grace and friendship, however, are destined for the eternal joys of heaven, where they will reign with Christ and behold the face of God, which is called the beatific vision.

Purgatory's role
Purgatory is for souls that die in a state of grace and destined for eternal reward in heaven, but impure. In purgatory, they are purified. Here, they atone for lighter, venial sins and satisfy any punishment still due for serious, mortal sins that have already been forgiven. Souls with unforgiven mortal sin or with original sin are not purified as these sins exclude one from a state of grace.

The Church applies the term ‘temporal punishment’ to this process of cleansing, distinguishing it in a radical way from the ‘eternal punishment’ of hell. Eternal punishment is the permanent deprivation of communion with God experienced forever in hell. Temporal punishment, on the other hand, is the sort that applies in Purgatory, cleansing the soul of an ‘unhealthy attachment to creatures’. The Catechism explains that, ‘These two punishments must not be conceived of as a kind of vengeance inflicted by God from without, but as following from the very nature of sin.’ Ultimately, the purification of Purgatory frees one from this temporal punishment so that the soul, having put off completely the ‘old man’ and put on the ‘new man’ (cf. ), may enter into the eternal joys of heaven.

And important part of the doctrine of Purgatory is the teaching that the dead undergoing purification and suffering temporal punishments can be aided by the living through their prayers, charitable acts done on behalf of the departed, and especially through the sacrifice of the mass (see below).

Prayer for the dead


Church teaching on purgatory is based on the practice of praying for the dead, a practice followed by Christians from the beginning, one too that is mentioned in the Second Book of Maccabees, which Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and Oriental Orthodox consider to be part of the Bible, while the writings of Paul the Apostle include what may be a prayer by him for a dead person.

Prayer for the dead, in the belief that the dead are thereby benefited, remains part of the practice not only of the Roman Catholic Church, but also of all the other ancient Christian Churches, even those that do not accept the Roman Catholic teaching on purgatory. In particular, the Latin, Greek, Coptic, Syrian, and Chaldaean Churches of ancient tradition offer the Eucharist on behalf of the dead.

The exhortation of Saint John Chrysostom (349– c. 407) bespeaks this practice: "Let us then give [the dead] aid and perform commemoration for them. For if the children of Job were purged by the sacrifice of their father, why do you doubt that when we too offer for the departed, some consolation arises to them? (Since God is wont to grant the petitions of those who ask for others).... Let us not then be weary in giving aid to the departed, both by offering on their behalf and obtaining prayers for them: for the common Expiation of the world is even before us. ... and it is possible from every source to gather pardon for them, from our prayers, from our gifts in their behalf, from those whose names are named with theirs. Why therefore do you grieve? Why mourn, when it is in your power to gather so much pardon for the departed?"

Other good works and indulgences
In addition to prayer for the dead, it is traditional to "do good works and labours of faith and love for them." Practices performed to assist them include almsgiving on their behalf and fasting and other penitential acts. To such prayers and good works, whether done for the performer's own benefit or for the good of other persons, living or dead, the Catholic Church attaches indulgences, granted from the "treasury of merits" (Christ's and the saints'), "at times remitting completely and at times partially the temporal punishment due to sin ... (urging) to perform works of piety, penitence and charity — particularly those which lead to growth in faith and which favour the common good. And if the faithful offer indulgences in suffrage for the dead, they cultivate charity in an excellent way."

Fire


The imagery of fire has long been common, and has links tradition to certain texts of Scripture, in particular to and, which also speak of fire, whether material or metaphorical. Although no dogmatic statement describes a material fire in the context of purgatory, the imagery of fire has long been common in the West. St. Augustine stated that the pain caused by purgatorial fire is more severe than anything a man can suffer in this life, and Gregory the Great mentioned those who after this life "will expiate their faults by purgatorial flames," adding "that the pain be more intolerable than any one can suffer in this life". St. Bonaventure (1221 – 1274) also stated that this punishment by fire is more severe than any punishment which comes to men in this life.

The First Council of Lyon (1245 AD) mentions a transitory fire that cleanses small or minor sins.

The conception of the purgatorial fire as material rather than metaphorical was a cause of disagreement between Latin Christendom and the Greeks, though at the Council of Florence, aimed at reconciliation between the groups, Bessarion argued against the existence of real purgatorial fire, and the Greeks were assured that the Roman Church had never committed itself to dogmatic belief in such fire (see below for dogmatic decrees). As dogmatic theologian Adrian Fortescue explained, "All a Catholic is bound to believe about Purgatory is contained in the definition of Trent, 'There is a Purgatory and souls there detained are helped by the prayers of the faithful and especially the Sacrifice of the Altar.'". Recent Catholic discussions of purgatory have respected the reserve of the Council of Trent.

The imagery of Purgatory involving various miseries, whether fire or more specific punishments tailored for particular vices, has a long history in Christian literature and visionary accounts. However these miseries, "like the physical horrors of the process of death itself, were evoked not to curdle the blood and oppress the spirit, but to stir the living to present action. Mortified lives of penance would make Purgatory superfluous, almsgiving and good works in time of prosperity would be better than last-minute fire insurance." As explained by historian Eamon Duffy, "In the noblest, most circumstantial, and most theologically sophisticated of all medieval visions of the other world, Dante’s Commedia, Purgatory is unequivocally a place of hope and a means of ascent towards Heaven. It thus has nothing in common with Hell.

Place
As with heaven and hell, purgatory is often spoken of as a place to which one goes or where one is. But as Pope John Paul II declared when stating that "the term ('purgatory') does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence", Church teaching does not endorse the idea of a place within physical space for purgatory frequently found in works of literature such as Dante Alighieri's Divina Commedia and legends such as that of St. Patrick's Purgatory.

Purgatory and other rites, denominations, and religions
Purgatory is strongly associated with the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church, but other rites, denominations, and religious do have views on the concept of Purgatory.

Purgatory and the Eastern Catholic Churches
The Roman Catholic Church is made up of 23 distinct Churches. The Latin Church is by far the most populous and influential-- its members make up approximately 98% of Roman Catholic Church. The remaining 22 churches are known collectively as the Eastern Catholic Churches. Historically, most of the Eastern Catholic Churches were, at some point in history, separate entities that later united with the Latin Church.

The Eastern Catholic Churches are full and equal members of the Roman Catholic Church, are under the leadership of the Pope, and officially accept all the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church (including those involving Purgatory). However, there are also differences between the the Eastern Catholic Churchs and the Latin Church in numerous matters of ceremony, tradition, and terminology. For example, while the priests in the Latin Church take vows of celibacy, married men are eligible to join the priesthood in most Eastern Catholic Churches.

One of the differences between the Latin Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches concerns the views about Purgatory. Many of Eastern Catholic Churches do not, in general, use the word "Purgatory", but they do agree that there is a "final purification" for souls destined for Heaven, and that prayers can help the dead who are in that state of "final purification". In general, neither the members of the Latin Church nor the members of the Easter Catholic Churches regard these differences as major points of active dispute, but instead see the differences more as minor nuances and differences of tradition. For example, a treaty which formalized the admission of Eastern Catholic Churches into the Roman Catholic Church explicitly states, "We shall not debate about purgatory," implying that both sides could "agree to disagree" on the precise details of the final purification".

Eastern Orthodox views of Purgatory
Eastern Orthodox Christians generally reject the Roman Catholic understanding of Purgatory. According to Eastern Orthodox beliefs, after death, a soul is either sent to heaven or hell, following the Temporary Judgment occurring immediately after death. Eastern Orthodox theology does not generally describe the process of purification after death as involving suffering or fire, although it is nevertheless describes it as a "direful condition". Eastern Orthodox Christians do, however, practice prayer for the dead, and they accept that those prayers can affect the state of the deceased souls.

Protestant views of Purgatory
In general, Protestant churches do not accept the doctrine of Purgatory. One of Protestantism's central tenets is Sola scriptura, a Latin phrase which translates to "Scripture alone". Protestants believe that the Bible alone is the basis for valid Christian Doctrine and, since the Protestant Bible contains no overt, explicit discussion of Purgatory, Protestants reject it as an "unbiblical" belief.

Another tenet of Protestantism is Sola fide-- "By faith alone". While Catholicism regards both good works and faith as being essential to salvation, Protestants believe faith alone is sufficient to achieve salvation and that good works are merely evidence of that faith. Salvation is generally seen as discrete event which takes place during one's lifetime. Instead of distinguishing between mortal and venial sins, Protestants believe that one's faith or state of "salvation" dictates one's place in the afterlife. Those who have been "saved" by God are destined for heaven, while those have not been saved will be excluded from Heaven. Accordingly, they reject the notion of any "third state" or "third place" such as Purgatory.

History
Purgatory developed out of the ancient practice of prayer for the dead, and the notion that not all souls are condemned to Hell or worthy of Heaven at the moment of death. Curiosity in the West concerning the intermediate state of the soul helped give rise to later theology. St. Augustine, Gregory the Great, and others contributed to the understanding of the soul’s purification after death, prior to the General Resurrection. By the twelfth century, Purgatory had emerged as a fully developed concept. At this time, the masters of Paris and elsewhere elaborated on the the theology, especially as regards to penance. They also gave the name purgatory to the place of purification. The Church defined the doctrine of purgatory at two councils in the 13th and 15th centuries. Reformers rejected the doctrine, and the Church affirmed its doctrine at the Council of Trent.

Christian antiquity


The doctrine of purgatory derives from the 2nd to 1st century BC Jewish beliefs that God will judge the people by their deeds and that the faithful should pray that God show mercy to the dead. A possible example of such prayers in Judaism is to be found in.

Attestation for Christians saying prayers for the dead goes back to at least the second century. evidenced in part by the tomb inscription of Abercius, Bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia (d. c. 200), which begs the prayers of the living. Likewise, some of the inscriptions in the catacombs are in the form of prayers for those buried there.

Also the second-century document, Acts of Paul and Thecla, presents prayer as one way of allowing for a dead person to "be translated to a state of happiness". In the third-century, a work titled Passion of the Holy Martyrs Perpetua and Felicity (a hagiography of saints Perpetua and Felicity) gives expression to the belief that sins can be purged by suffering in an afterlife, and that the process can be accelerated by prayer.

Celebration of the Eucharist for the dead was also practiced, and is attested to since at least the third century.

The concept of an intermediate state for those not worthy of heaven developed gradually, partly because early Christians aniticipated an imminent end of the world and considered the dead to be asleep or waiting (see 1 Thessalonians 4:13). Many of the Church Fathers express belief in purification after death and of the communion of the living with the dead through prayer. The patristic authors often understood those undergoing purification to be awaiting the Last Judgment before receiving the final blessedness of the Resurrection of the Dead, and they also often described this purification as a journey which entailed hardships but also powerful glimpses of joy. Irenaeus's (c. 130-202) description of the souls of the dead (awaiting the universal judgment) to be experiencing a process of purification contains the concept of purgatory. Both St. Clement of Alexandria (c. 150-215) and his pupil, Origen (c. 185-254), developed a view of purification after death; this view drew upon the notion that fire is a divine instrument from the Old Testament, and understood this in the context of New Testament teachings such as baptism by fire, from the Gospels, and a purificatory trial after death, from St. Paul. For both Clement and Origen, the fire was neither a material thing nor a metaphor, but a "spiritual fire". An early Latin author, Tertullian (c. 160-225), also articulated a view of purification after death. In Tertullian's understanding of the afterlife, the souls of martyrs entered directly into eternal blessedness, whereas the rest entered a generic realm of the dead. There the wicked suffered a foretaste of their eternal punishments, whilst the good experienced various stages and places of bliss, an idea that was "universally diffused" in antiquity.

Later examples, which contain further elaborations, abound. Of these the most significant is St. Augustine (354-430), whose remarks concerning a purifying fire after death and the efficacy of prayer for those undergoing this purification were highly influential in later theology. Augustine distinguished between fire that burns off stains and the everlasting fire that consumes those who are damned. In this, he disagreed with Origen and Gregory of Nyssa, who favored the concept (also found in Zoroastrianism) that all humankind will eventually be saved through fiery purification.

Early Middle Ages


Pope Gregory the Great's Dialogues, written in the late sixth century, taught: "As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, 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."

For Gregory, God was further illuminating the nature of the afterlife, sending visions and the like, whereby, more fully than before, the outlines of the fate of the soul immediately beyond the grave were becoming visible, like the half-light that precedes the dawn. Like Augustine, Gregory emphasized that one's eternal fate is determined at death and that only the saved are purified.

In the seventh century, the Irish abbot St. Fursa described his foretaste of the afterlife, where, though protected by angels, he was pursued by demons who said, "It is not fitting that he should enjoy the blessed life unscathed..., for every transgression that is not purged on earth must be avenged in heaven," and on his return he was engulfed in a billowing fire that threatened to burn him, "for it stretches out each one according to their merits... For just as the body burns through unlawful desire, so the soul will burn, as the lawful, due penalty for every sin." The event was included by The Venerable Bede in his Ecclesiastical History, a highly popular and influential work. St. Boniface also described a vision of Purgatory.

Theologians of the Carolingian period, especially Alcuin, Rabanus, Haymo, and Walafrid Strabo, contributed to the development of the doctrine. By the end of the tenth century, the widespread observance of All Souls' Day in the West, established in part through the influence of St. Odilo of Cluny (c 962 - c 1048 AD), had "helped to concentrate the imagination on the fate of departed souls and fostered a sense of solidarity between the living and the dead." The great success of Cluniac monasticism helped foster a sense of spiritual fervor throughout Latin Christendom.

High Middle Ages


Amid the general elaboration of theology in the twelfth century, the studies by the masters of Paris and elsewhere concerning the theology of penance helped to fashion a notion of purgatory as a place where canonical penances unfinished in this life could be completed. Western theologians had sometimes written of purgatorial places, and the 12th century, the place where souls were purified was first given the name "purgatorium" (purgatory), from Latin "purgare", "to cleanse". In the next century, a writing of Thomas Aquinas contains the classic formulation of the doctrine, stating that the dead in purgatory are at peace because they are sure of salvation, and that they benefit from the prayers of the living because they are still part of the Communion of Saints, from which only hell or limbo can separate one.

A reference to purgatory is found in the text of the First Council of Lyon in 1245.

Another reference was in the profession of faith of Emperor Michael VIII Palaeologus at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274.

In the High Middle Ages, purgatory also began to loom large in lay awareness, providing the rational for the immense elaboration of the cult of the intercession of the dead. Many accounts of visions circulated among the laity and found their way into devotional collections. The best known examples include the Gast of Gy, the revelations of St. Brigit of Sweden (1303 – 1373), and those associated with St. Patrick’s Purgatory – a popular subject of legend, written about by Henry of Sawtrey in his twelfth-century Tractatus de Purgatorio S. Patricii (and others). These accounts were designed to move the Christian to pious action on his own behalf while still in health, to complete his penances, and to be generous in charity. These were the good deeds which would accompany everyman, to plead for him, "For after death amends may no man make, For then mercy and pity doth him forsake."

Building on these pictures of purgatory, Dante Alighieri (1265–1321) depicted in his Purgatorio, in which purgatory is a seven-story mountain, the gradual purification of the image and likeness of God in the human soul.

Medievalist Jacques Le Goff argued that purgatory was "born" in this period. Although he recognized the notion of purification after death in antiquity (specifically that Clement of Alexandria and Origen derived their view of purification from various biblical teachings), and even considered vague concepts of purifying and punishing fire to predate Christianity, Le Goff considered a radical conceptual shift to have taken place in the developed perception of purgatory from a prefatory process to a specific place.

In the context of discussion with the Greeks, the two thirteenth-century Councils of Lyon considered purgatory. The official teaching of the Church then and later remained limited to two elements: the existence of a state of purification for souls en route to heaven, and the efficaciousness of prayer for the dead.

Related beliefs continued to grow, such as the Sabbatine Privilege, which appeared in the second half of the fifteenth century, the wondrous powers for releasing souls from purgatory of a prayer of uncertain date attributed to Gertrude the Great. Of the various visions of purgatory, those of Catherine of Genoa are the most credited.

A further dogmatic pronouncement of the Roman Catholic Church about purgatory, still regarded as valid, is of the 1439 Council of Florence.

Latin-Greek relations


In the 15th century, Byzantine emperor John VIII Palaeologus attempted to bring the Eastern Orthodox churches back into commumion with Rome. At the Council of Florence (1431-1445), Eastern and Western clergymen met in an attempt to undo the Great Schism of 1054. Eastern Orthodox participants identified several apparent stumbling blocks to reunification, including Papal primacy, the West's unleavened bread in the Eucharist, one word in the Nicene Creed, and purgatory. The Greeks objected especially to the conception of material fire and to the legalism of the Western approach, for example in the distinction between guilt and punishment.

At the Council, Bessarion, a member of John VIII's Greek contingent, argued against the existence of real purgatorial fire. The text of the Council's decree on purgatory contains no reference to fire and, without using the word "purgatorium" (purgatory), speaks only of "pains of cleansing" ("poenae purgatoriae"),

Though this reunification was generally rejected in the East, certain Eastern Communities were later received into full communion with the Roman Catholic Church.

Protestant objections
Protestant reformers rejected purgatory, arguing that there is no sound spiritual referances to any state of a "purgatory", and rejecting the mercenary aspects of late medieval religion in which purgatory was implicated. Protestant theologians' developing views on salvation (soteriology) excluded purgatory, partly because of doctrinal changes by reformers concerning justification and sanctification.

For Martin Luther, justification meant "the declaring of one to be righteous", where God imputes the merits of Christ to one who remains without inherent merit. In this process, good works done in faith (i.e. through penance) are unessential byproducts that contribute nothing to one's own state of righteousness. "Becoming perfect" came to be understood as an instantaneous act of God, so that each one of the elect (saved) experienced instantaneous glorification upon death. In the absence of any process or journey of purification in the afterlife there was no reason to pray for the dead. Luther wrote "We should pray for ourselves and for all other people, even for our enemies, but not for the souls of the dead." (expanded Small Catechism, Question No. 211) Luther stopped believing in purgatory around 1530, and later affirmed that the dead "sleep" unconsciously (soul sleep). . Subsequent Lutheran confessions do not expressly reject all ideas of purification after death.

Purgatory came to be seen as one of the "unbiblical corruptions" that had entered Church teachings some time after the apostolic age. The Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, produced during the English Reformation, stated: "The Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory...is a fond thing vainly invented, and grounded upon no warranty of Scripture; but rather repugnant to the word of God". (article 22) John Calvin, central theologian of Reformed Protestantism, considered purgatory a superstition, writing in his Institutes (5.10): "The doctrine of purgatory ancient, but refuted by a more ancient Apostle. Not supported by ancient writers, by Scripture, or solid argument. Introduced by custom and a zeal not duly regulated by the word of God… we must hold by the word of God, which rejects this fiction."

Some Protestants have accepted prayer for the dead, an intermediate state of purification, and even the term "purgatory". William Forbes, the first Scottish Episcopal Bishop of Edinburgh, affirmed prayer for the dead and described an intermediate state where the soul is purified by its fervent longing for God. Anglican apologist C. S. Lewis believed in purgatory, if not in what the Reformers called "the Romish doctrine concerning Purgatory", and defended the notion. Other Anglicans, in particular Anglo-Catholics (such as the Guild of All Souls), profess belief in purgatory.

Counter-Reformation and thereafter
An early reply to the Reformers was made by St. John Fisher, who based his defence of the doctrine on the writings of the Church Fathers, and the practice of prayer for the dead from the earliest times.

The Council of Trent gave the official response of the Catholic Church to the critics, repeating the teaching already given by the First Council of Lyon. The text of its decree restates the concepts of purification after death and the efficacy of prayers for the dead, and sternly instructs preachers not to push beyond that and distract, confuse, and mislead the faithful with unnecessary speculations concerning the nature and duration of purgatorial punishments. The legends and speculation that had grown up and still continue to grow around the concept of purgatory were not treated as Church teaching. The Council decreed: "Those matters … which tend to a certain curiosity or superstition, or that savour of filthy lucre, let them prohibit as scandals and stumbling blocks to the faithful." Recent Catholic discussions of purgatory have respected the reserve of the Council of Trent, interpreting the notion of fire in a metaphorical sense, and the temporal aspect in terms of intensity.

A second pronouncement still regarded as dogmatically valid is that of the Council of Trent in 1563.

Later ideas about purgatory
Questions already discussed among theologians since the Middle Ages continued to be developed. One is whether the souls in purgatory can pray for the living. When considering whether the saints in heaven pray for us, Saint Thomas Aquinas said that the souls in purgatory cannot. According to the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church, Saint Robert Bellarmine (1542 – 1621) advocated petitioning the souls in purgatory to pray for one, According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, on the contrary, Saint Robert Bellarmine (in De Purgatorio, lib. II, xv), while finding unconvincing the reason given by Saint Thomas Aquinas, said that, ordinarily speaking, it is superfluous to invoke the prayers of those in purgatory, "for they are ignorant of our circumstances and condition." The Catholic Encyclopedia attributes instead to the theologian Francisco Suárez (in De poenit., disp. xlvii, s. 2, n. 9) the opinion "that the souls in purgatory are holy, are dear to God, love us with a true love and are mindful of our wants; that they know in a general way our necessities and our dangers, and how great is our need of divine help and divine grace".

Purgatory themes have also been prominent in various works of literature, such as Shakespeare's Hamlet (1603), Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol, and the European ghost-story tradition in general.

Recent Catholic theologians Yves Congar (1904-1995), Karl Rahner (1904-1984), and Hans Urs von Balthasar (1905-1988) have addressed purgatory in reserved terms. They reinterpreted certain traditional aspects, such as fire and time in purgatory, and left many questions open, such as whether souls in purgatory can pray for the living.