On Purgatory:
Matthew 5:25-26 “Settle with your opponent quickly while on the way to court with him. Otherwise your opponent will hand you over to the judge, and the judge will hand you over to the guard, and you will be thrown into prison. Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last penny.”
1 Corinthians 3:13-15 “…the work of each will come to light, for the Day will disclose it. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire [itself] will test the quality of each one’s work. If the work stands that someone built upon the foundation, that person will receive a wage. But if someone’s work is burned up, that one will suffer loss; the person will be saved, but only as through fire.”
(See John 4:36 and Romans 6:23 for what the wages are.)
Wisdom 3:6-7, 10-11 “As gold in the furnace he proved them, and as sacrificial offerings he took them to himself. In the time of their judgment they shall shine and dart about as sparks through stubble. But the wicked shall receive a punishment to match their thoughts, since they neglected righteousness and forsook the Lord. For those who despise wisdom and instruction are doomed. Vain is their hope, fruitless their labors, and worthless their works.”
If “once saved, always saved” were a reality, then Saint John the Apostle would not have written about people witnessing their brothers (other Christians, in other words) sinning in 1 John 5:16-17, because such a thing would be impossible, and praying for them as he suggests would be pointless. Furthermore, Saint Paul would not have said in Philippians 2:12 for the Philippians to work out their salvation “in fear and trembling.” And as if those two passages weren’t enough, the Lord Jesus Himself, in Matthew 7:21-23 and Luke 13:24-30, says that not every Christian will get into Heaven.
On homosexuality:
Remember that we are to love the sinner but hate the sin.
Leviticus 18:22 “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; such a thing is an abomination.”
Romans 1:26-27 “Therefore, God handed them over to degrading passions. Their females exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the males likewise gave up natural relations with females and burned with lust for one another. Males did shameful things with males and thus received in their own persons the due penalty for their own perversity.”
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 “Do not be deceived; neither fornicators nor idolaters nor adulterers nor boy prostitutes nor sodomites nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor robbers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
1 Timothy 1:8-10 “We know that the law is good, provided that one uses it as law, with the understanding that law is not meant for a righteous person but for the lawless and unruly, the Godless and sinful, the unholy and profane, those who kill their fathers or mothers, murderers, the unchaste, sodomites, kidnapers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is opposed to sound teaching…”
And from the Catechism of the Catholic Church:
Chastity and homosexuality
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,140 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."141 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
On the Priesthood
In Exodus, God instituted a male-only priesthood. He has not changed that aspect to this day. A priest acts In persona Christi capitis, which means he has the “authority to act in the power and place of the person of Christ himself…” (CCC 1548) Consider firstly, that Saint Paul in his letter to the Ephesians places Christ in the role of bridegroom and the Church in the role of bride. The priest acts in the place of Christ, in effect he stands in the place of the bridegroom to the Church’s bride. Now consider what is written above concerning homosexuality. If a woman stood in that same place, it would be in effect a homosexual marriage, two brides and no groom. And God does not approve of that according to Scripture.
Bottom line: The Church can only exercise the power which Christ gave her, and Pope John Paul II stated infallibly that the Church does not have the power to ordain women.
For reading, I highly recommend the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which has a list of Bible and Church document references for everyone to look up.
