Do most souls go to Purgatory?

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I don’t think that most going to purgatory and then eventually heaven, is a thought that aligns with the urgency to teach what is true.

If that was the case why would we have a ‘Catholic Answers’ site?

There is way too much focus on a narrow path.

We don’t know how narrow.

We like to compare our sinfulness, but in the wrong direction ‘at least I didn’t do that’ may be driving one the wrong direction.

1 act of disobedience is the true comparative, how are we doing against that?

This is not meant to scare as much as help us realize what we need - God, in all the gifts He provides to help us.

We can’t be heavenly on our own, and we have the freedom to accept the help and receive heavenly gifts, or not.

That is urgent news.

Take care,

Mike
 
My (admittedly imperfect) understanding is that those who are in purgatory are destined eventually for heaven. As such, only those going to heaven would be in purgatory. And as has been mentioned, the Fathers teach few will actually be saved, therefore few in purgatory.

Thanks for the topic.
 
Good grief how would anybody know?
Let’s each one of us, worry about our own soul, instead of speculating on the fate of others.
Jesus was trying to make a point to His listeners. He was teaching.
Sort of like a Coach who says “you’ll never make it to the playoff’s with a scrimmage like that!”
 
marymmma said:
I have a question. Can we reduce or eliminate time spent in Purgatory, by doing the things you mentioned, for a loved one? In my case, I would hope to be able to do what I can to reduce time spent in Purgatory, for my son who died two years and three months ago.
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My greatest sympathies for the loss of your son.

And YES!!! Not only *can *we, but we *should *offer up penitential practices for the Poor Souls, as they can do nothing for themselves. So it is very important for us to do what we can for them. And if we offer up practices for a specific soul who is no longer in Purgatory, what we offer is applied to another soul, so it does not go to waste.

And we can apply any or all the indulgences we obtain to a particular soul or to the Poor Souls in general. So my morning prayer includes: *I wish to obtain, for the Holy Souls in Purgatory, all the indulgences attached to the prayers I shall say and the good works I shall perform this day. *That covers anything I might otherwise miss.

And I hope that you already know this, but in case you or another reader of this post doesn’t, we can also offer up Masses for souls. You may have noticed that during the part of Mass when we offer up intercessory prayer (When they say *For [intention] *and we respond, Lord, hear our prayer), there will usually be a part when they say, *For [name], for whom this Mass is offered. *That is, the graces of that Mass are offered for [name]. You can ask someone who works in the parish office or the priest about how to do this.
 
I started another Novena this morning before early Mass for the souls in Purgatory. My mom died March 5 so I’m doing my part as best as I can. I hope somebody prays for me when it is my turn to punch out.
 
HabemusFrancis said:
I have been entertaining a theory lately, perhaps I am the only Catholic who entertains it.

My theory is that most people are ultimately saved, but most of those people spend varying degrees in purgatory.

Sadly, I do not believe in “universal salvation” or that “Hell does not exist.” I personally believe a sillier variation of this idea is that “Hell exists, but it is empty/unpopulated as of now.” I get this funny mental image of Satan tapping his cloven hoof or looking at a wristwatch in frustration :rolleyes:.

I find the latter silly because it would mean there is zero danger of anyone alive today of going to Hell. I suppose some danger would exist, but it would be statistically impossible that you’d go there.

Anyway, back to my main point. Based on what I have seen of most people, most probably will go to purgatory (instead of most being damned.) I don’t know exact numbers, but most people in my life seem to will “the good” so to speak and are sincerely sorry for their failures and shortcomings but just aren’t “there” yet.

Does anyone subscribe to my theory? It would be quite nice (ultimately) if it turns out most people aren’t bound for hell so to speak, but a duration in purgatory instead?

It just seems to me it takes a special kind of person to be damned/hellbound: a person utterly unrepentent and satisfied with their grave defects of character and choices. Almost a refusal to be sorry or desire to serve the good/make up for failures they commit.

It almost seems you have to be as mean/selfish/unremorseful as “sin” to be damned. I believe that is likely an unfortuantely high number of people… but perhaps not “most” souls?

As an afterthought… I might be a “glutton for punishment” but if purgatory is my immediate afterlife fate…I will be sad yet satisfied. I will have “won” in the long term so to speak, since heaven will be my ultimate fate and am unable to lose that fate.

As for the pains in purgatory I would suffer if I were there… I suppose I’d try to deal with them in good grace…but for now hope I can undergo my purgation in this life:blush:
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Most people need a shower and a change of clothes after working all day in the yard. 😉

More troubling, however, is consideration of how many will even get to purgatory. Ralph Martin explores this topic in his book, Will Many Be Saved?, and here is an overview:

osv.com/OSVNewsweekly/Story/TabId/2672/ArtMID/13567/ArticleID/15683/Will-Many-Be-Saved.aspx
 
ChurchSoldier said:
My (admittedly imperfect) understanding is that those who are in purgatory are destined eventually for heaven. As such, only those going to heaven would be in purgatory. And as has been mentioned, the Fathers teach few will actually be saved, therefore few in purgatory.

Thanks for the topic.
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You are correct the first part. Only those having everlasting life see Purgatory.

As to the second, you **may **be right, but, as Kreeft said, “many” and “few” are subjective. If one of your loved-ones died tragically, that would be too **many; **and too **few **would remain alive.

ICXC NIKA
 
powerofk said:
Confession does not remit temporal punishment (Purgatory). Only Baptism does that. Confession does, however, restore grace to our souls. Pretty much, the only way to guarantee to go straight to Heaven without stopping by Purgatory first is to die immediately after Baptism through no fault of one’s own. So just about everyone that is going to Heaven makes a stop in Purgatory.
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Actually, there are plenary indulgences which wipe out all punishment due to sin.
 
Let me explan my reasoning a bit.

It seems to me for one to be sentenced to Hell, they’d have had to “give up” so to speak. They need not be a violent criminal to be hell-bound, but one who stopped trying to repent and “fight the good fight” so to speak.

If one is in conflict, or trying to make it to heaven/follow God’s will I am not certain purgatory is out of the question.

It does depress me to think very many people, perhaps even a majority do not wish to live as God would wish, but that could be the truth. We know for sure it is not always fun or easy to do God’s will.

Ultimately however, such speculation is fruitless and just speculation. We all have things to work on and ways to honor God that we don’t always do.

I suppose I should just pray for everyone and not concern myself with anyone’s ultimate fate (except myself!)
 
Petaro said:
I read all the theories of the Church Fathers who say that most are damned and that is the few that make the narrow path. I believe in a more loving Creator than many of these great writers.
I am a simple man. I see all of us born into a world with a short, almost minuscule life time in the scope of eternity. The world teaches us nothing of the supernatural. We have the most silent God seemingly reluctant to act against the most obvious evil of this world, leaving most of His creation in poverty and with an innate nature towards evil. He expects us to fight this internal temptation all our lives with increasingly difficult moral decisions to make within a sadly institutionalised immoral society. He gives us a demand for Faith against considerable reason not to have that Faith. Many of us live from wage to wage even in the affluent West, whilst we spend our resources bombing the poverty stricken Middle East and warring over eons. And then we are told most go to Hell.
Well, stuff that!! I really believes that there is a loving God. I have no idea why He is so silent, seemingly impotent in the face of our ceaseless prayers. But if we all go to Hell, I will be very very disappointed in Him. I believe He saves all who cry to him for forgiveness and fortitude. I believe he is very very reluctant to let one sheep lose itself and will search for it until the end.
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👍

We must always remember three things:
  1. “Few” is a qualitative, not a quantitative term. If I am a father of five children, and two of them perish in an accident leaving me with three living children, that would still be “few” for me. If this is the case for a human father whose love is imperfect and finite, how much less can “few” be taken as “a minority” or “very little” when we are talking of a God who is Love (1 John 4:8)?
  2. The words of Jesus, the apostles and the Saints about the fewness of the saved must be true (in other words, Universalism and “Hell is empty” are certainly false); however, they must also be viewed in their context, as warnings. Note that when Our Lord was asked about the exact number of the saved, he dismissed the question outright and said (I paraphrase) “Don’t bother about that: strive to enter yourself!” Even the famous sermon of St. Leonard of Port Maurice about the fewness of the saved was meant not to induce despair, but to jolt his listeners into repentance and conversion. No one ever committed suicide from listening to his sermons. (Contrast this with the Calvinist Jonathan Edwards, whose rantings about “sinners in the hands of an Angry God” left suicides in their wake. :()
  3. Given Scripture and Tradition, it is perfectly orthodox to hold that not all (and, in fact, not even a “majority”) are saved, or even to hold a rigorous interpretation of EENS. However, holding to this should not mean that we populate Hell with those we dislike (gays, women wearing pants, Justin Bieber, the Pakistani cricket team, and so on) and neglect the very real possibility of our being damned through presumption or pride, or assume that EENS puts us in the clear when our own deeds have caused a loss of sanctifying grace.
And that’s all I’ll say on the topic for now. 🙂
 
Kay_Cee said:
Actually, there are plenary indulgences which wipe out all punishment due to sin.
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There are… yet it’s really nearly impossible for us to truly know if we’ve truly earned a plenary indulgence. Why? Because part of the requirement to earn a plenary indulgence is to have no attachment to any sin - even a venial sin. And we’re so good at deceiving ourselves that we might believe that we have no attachment, but only God knows the truth about the state of our souls.

Besides, after committing even one venial sin, we are again subject to Purgatory.
 
I know some of the Church fathers taught something to the effect that “Purgatory is merely a temporary Hell.”

For some reason, I highly doubt that is the case, or that the two are remotely comprable. I believe Purgatory is painful and unpleasent, and something to strive to avoid, yet it does not seem like a “hellish” place or even a “bad” one.

Souls there are filled with love for eachother, God and the living. Apparently angels and the BVM visit them frequently with consolations, and I imagine they are in relation and friendship with eachother.

This seems totally different from Hell, where in additition to the horrible demons and torments, there is not one scrap of friendship, affection or compassion for anyone or anything:blush:
 
HabemusFrancis said:
I know some of the Church fathers taught something to the effect that “Purgatory is merely a temporary Hell.”

For some reason, I highly doubt that is the case, or that the two are remotely comprable. I believe Purgatory is painful and unpleasent, and something to strive to avoid, yet it does not seem like a “hellish” place or even a “bad” one.

Souls there are filled with love for eachother, God and the living. Apparently angels and the BVM visit them frequently with consolations, and I imagine they are in relation and friendship with eachother.

This seems totally different from Hell, where in additition to the horrible demons and torments, there is not one scrap of friendship, affection or compassion for anyone or anything:blush:
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St. Catharine of Genoa agrees with you. She wrote “Purgation and Purgatory, The Spiritual Dialogue”.
I first heard of this book from a CD by Father Benedict Groeschel. He highly recommended it, and mentioned that most other books on Purgatory are not as well written as St. Catharine’s book.
 
powerofk said:
There are… yet it’s really nearly impossible for us to truly know if we’ve truly earned a plenary indulgence. Why? Because part of the requirement to earn a plenary indulgence is to have no attachment to any sin - even a venial sin. And we’re so good at deceiving ourselves that we might believe that we have no attachment, but only God knows the truth about the state of our souls.

Besides, after committing even one venial sin, we are again subject to Purgatory.
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Ah, but you said, “Pretty much, the only way to guarantee to go straight to Heaven without stopping by Purgatory first is to die immediately after Baptism through no fault of one’s own.”

But one could die immediately after gaining a plenary indulgence. Or one could die from martyrdom.

So there are other ways than dying right after being baptized.
 
Kay_Cee said:
Ah, but you said, “Pretty much, the only way to guarantee to go straight to Heaven without stopping by Purgatory first is to die immediately after Baptism through no fault of one’s own.”

But one could die immediately after gaining a plenary indulgence. Or one could die from martyrdom.

So there are other ways than dying right after being baptized.
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My point actually was that the only way for an individual to know for sure that he/she is going straight to Heaven is to die right after baptism. See, even if you’ve earned a plenary indulgence, you’re never actually sure that you earned it. Only God knows for sure.

And though martyrs do go to Heaven, for many there is wonder about whether their act was truly an act of martyrdom. For instance, St. Joan of Arc, even though she was killed for her faith, is not considered a martyr - because she was put to death not by pagans, nor by atheists, nor by heretics, nor Protestant Reformers, but by Catholic clergy. And her excommunication (later posthumously overturned by the Pope) and execution were primarily political in nature. And there was controversy over whether St. Maximilian Kolbe was actually a martyr, as he died by swapping his life for another man’s and because most of the Nazis were titular Christians, with some of them titular Catholics. It wasn’t until Pope St. John Paul II declared St, Maximilian Kolbe a martyr at his canonization that the question was settled.
 
powerofk said:
My point actually was that the only way for an individual to know for sure that he/she is going straight to Heaven is to die right after baptism. See, even if you’ve earned a plenary indulgence, you’re never actually sure that you earned it. Only God knows for sure.

And though martyrs do go to Heaven, for many there is wonder about whether their act was truly an act of martyrdom. For instance, St. Joan of Arc, even though she was killed for her faith, is not considered a martyr - because she was put to death not by pagans, nor by atheists, nor by heretics, nor Protestant Reformers, but by Catholic clergy. And her excommunication (later posthumously overturned by the Pope) and execution were primarily political in nature. And there was controversy over whether St. Maximilian Kolbe was actually a martyr, as he died by swapping his life for another man’s and because most of the Nazis were titular Christians, with some of them titular Catholics. It wasn’t until Pope St. John Paul II declared St, Maximilian Kolbe a martyr at his canonization that the question was settled.
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Well, your original post wasn’t about what we can know but rather how it can be done, so that’s the way I read it. Thanks for clearing this up.
 
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