Did the rich man go to hell or purgatory?

[safety14]

I asked this on another forum but haven’t gotten a answer yet. So here goes. In Luke’s Gospel (16:19-31) it talks about the rich man going to hell. However, it also talkes about this same rich man asking for grace for himself and his family after he is damned. This doesn’t sound like someone in hell sounds more like the rich man went to purgatory.

 

[Michelle_Arnold]

The Church hasn’t defined whether these verses mean that the rich man of Jesus’ parable was in purgatory or in hell, but Thomas Aquinas argued that the apparent love shown by the rich man may be no more than self-interest:

So great will be the envy of the damned that they will envy the glory even of their kindred, since they themselves are supremely unhappy, for this happens even in this life, when envy increases. Nevertheless they will envy their kindred less than others, and their punishment would be greater if all their kindred were damned, and others saved, than if some of their kindred were saved. For this reason the rich man prayed that his brethren might be warded from damnation: for he knew that some are guarded therefrom. Yet he would rather that his brethren were damned as well as all the rest (source).

**Recommended reading:

Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man** by Jan Wakelin (scroll to question-and-answer four)