Can you be a Catholic and not believe in Purgatory?

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Melanilove

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Good evening everybody 🙂

I was thinking this earlier today, and I wanted to hear your thoughts…

Thanks and God bless!
Melani
 
If you don’t believe in purgatory ask your Priest about it. It’s scripturally supported numerous times. It’s not a belief some Priest thought up in the middle ages or something, it’s a reality and thank God for it or I fear between now and the end of time perhaps six people would make it to Heaven.
 
Marcarios said:
Eastern Catholics arent required to believe it
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In the Catholic understanding, only two points are necessary dogma concerning “purgatory”:
  1. There is a place of transition/transformation for those en-route to Heaven, and
  2. prayer is efficacious for the dead who are in this state.
Hence, the eastern catholics do believe in the purgatory although they do not use the word “purgatory”

Its a choice of words rather than belief.
 
anjoh66 said:
In the Catholic understanding, only two points are necessary dogma concerning “purgatory”:
  1. There is a place of transition/transformation for those en-route to Heaven, and
  2. prayer is efficacious for the dead who are in this state.
Hence, the eastern catholics do believe in the purgatory although they do not use the word “purgatory”

Its a choice of words rather than belief.
Click to expand...
đź‘Ť

Excellent post. As an Eastern Catholic I can say that, although we do not speak of purgatory proper the way Roman Catholics do, we certainly believe in a (possible - i.e. for those who need it) transitional stage of purification after death.

Most Roman Catholics I’ve talked to speak of purgatory as a place of pain, sort of like a temporary Hell. That is not really the theology of the Eastern (Byzantine) Catholics (I can’t speak for the Oriental Catholics). We speak of purgatory more along the lines of a continued theosis/divinization.

Incidentally, such a transitional stage is also the belief of most Orthodox Christians, although it is not considered required dogmatic belief.
 
I watched this video on believing what the Church believes on youtube and this guy put it perfect.

Can I not be Catholic, and still be Catholic?

No.

youtu.be/Ds3RP2WV4rs
 
None of the Church Fathers believed in a Physical Fire and a place of torment where one spends an alotted amount of time for ones sins as a “penance” or in which an “indulgence” was necessary for such a soul in such a state to be released from said place. Purgatory as a doctrine is early medevil exegesis of Scripture and Tradition by Latin Scholastics.
 
Marcarios said:
None of the Church Fathers believed in a Physical Fire and a place of torment where one spends an alotted amount of time for ones sins as a “penance” or in which an “indulgence” was necessary for such a soul in such a state to be released from said place. Purgatory as a doctrine is early medevil exegesis of Scripture and Tradition by Latin Scholastics.
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Those are not required believes for any Catholic: physical fire, place of torment, etc.
But what Catholic believe, the core and necessary dogma of purgatory is that:
  1. No imperfection can enter heaven, hence the process of sanctification for a person died in grace will continue and be perfected. First and foremost, this process is a grace. God perfected to the end what He started.
  2. Prayer of the Church beneficial for them who undergo this final sanctification. This is where indulgence must put into perspective.
The Catholic Chuch, in saying about purgatory only speak as much for a definition:
Catechism of the Catholic Church 1030 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.
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I personally believe in purgatory, somehow excited expecting my own purgation when the time come.
I see the description of place/physical fire/outer rim of hell about purgatory simply as an analogy.
 
Melanilove said:
Good evening everybody 🙂

I was thinking this earlier today, and I wanted to hear your thoughts…

Thanks and God bless!
Melani
Click to expand...
Depends what you mean by not believing in purgatory. Eastern Catholics have a different definition and understanding of it, something that you cannot call “purgatory” in the sense it is understood in the Latin Church, but of course the essential things are the same. That is that prayers for the dead are efficacious that we can improve upon the condition of their soul from their death to the Last Judgement through these prayers.
 
Marcarios said:
Eastern Catholics arent required to believe it
Click to expand...
No but we do believe in something that is essentially the same, that is the prayers for the dead are efficacious and that it is to be done to help them reach a better state in the afterlife. So definitely there is a belief in a state or process where one is made more worthy of God through the prayers of the Church.
 
Hi,

Go to Google and type in maria simma interview by sister emmanuel
 
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