Eastern Catholics and Purgatory

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Hello,

I am a Roman Catholic and I was wondering how do Eastern Catholics define Purgatory?
 
Good question! I grew up going to Ukrainian Catholic Church and I have no idea. (Theology wasn’t as important as being Ukrainian)
 
I think Eastern Catholics believe Purgatory is when someone prays for you when you are in Hades. But many Eastern Catholics, like me, believe Purgatory is a place where God sends people to literally be cleansed, and you can be cleansed without prayer from others.
 
You’ll hear Bishops and Priests especially here in North America use the word from time to time, but that is because people know what you are talking about. But if you look at our Liturgical texts, you will never see for prayers directed to “souls in Purgatory”. So it is not part of our belief. But certainly we pray for the souls of the departed, wherever they may be. To us, our prayers for them for God’s mercy supersedes any notion on the state or condition of their soul. Fact is, we don’t know where they are and what really is there in the afterlife. All we know is that it is worth praying for our dearly departed and it does help them, so we do that.
 
Byzantine, from the Panachida (A Memorial Service For The Deceased)

LITANY FOR THE DECEASED

P. Have mercy on us, O God, according to Your great mercy, we pray You, hear us, and have mercy.

R. Lord, have mercy. (3)

P. Let us pray for the repose of the soul(s) of the departed servant(s) of God, N(s)., and that (his, her, their) every transgression, committed deliberately or through human frailty, be forgiven (him, her, them).

R. Lord, have mercy. (3)

P. Let us also pray that the Lord God commit (his, her, their) soul(s) to the place where the Just repose.

R. Lord, have mercy. (3)

P. For the mercy of God, for the kingdom of heaven, and for the remission of (his, her, their) sins, let us beseech Christ, the Immortal King and our God.

R. Grant it, O Lord.

P. Let us pray to the Lord.

R. Lord, have mercy.

P. O God of spirits and of all flesh, You trampled Death and broke the power of Satan, and granted life to Your world. Now grant rest, O Lord, to the soul(s) of Your departed servant(s), in a place of light, joy, and peace, where there is no pain, sorrow, or mourning. As a kind and gracious God, forgive every sin committed by (him, her, them) in word, deed, or thought, since there is no person who exists and does not sin. You alone are without sin, Your justice is everlasting justice, and Your word is the truth.

For You are the resurrection, the life, and the repose of Your departed servant(s), O Christ our God, and we glorify You together with Your eternal Father, and Your all-holy, gracious, and life-giving Spirit, now and ever, and forever.

R. Amen.
 
I recently found out about the following from ignatius of Antioch
Letter to the Ephesians
Section11

“…these chains I wear are a collar of spiritual pearls to me, in which I hope to raise again through the help of your intercessions. **May there always be a place for me in those intercession, **so that I too may have part and lot among the men of Ephesus -Christians who in power of Jesus Christ have ever been of the self same mind as the Apostles themselves.”

The use of the word “always” strikes me given his predicament.
Ie he knew he was going to die.
 
What purgatory means is a “cleansing period”. No one argues this point. Whats debated is the dynamics which frankly Rome went a bit over the edge with from a mystical point of view. I also remember St Mark addressed this. Basically they were dealing with mystics, visionaries in this realm of the debate.

At Florence, Joseph, Patriarch of Constantinople acknowledged purgatory and the Pope of Rome as supreme pontiff. then left a letter of consent before his untimely death. All the Orthodox in attendance agreed but “one”. Course conspiracy theories run from the West killed him to the East killed him. Personally I believe he was old and stress probably killed him. It makes absolutely no sense he died for this issue.

"Mark of Ephesus, disagreed on only two minor points: he did not believe that torture in Purgatory was limited to fire. He believed that it could take many forms, and so preferred the use of the generic term “pains” in place of “fire.” He also objected to Purgatory being referred to as being “in some place.” He wrote: “The souls of those who depart this life with true repentance and in the love of God, before they have rendered satisfaction for their trespasses and negligence’s by worthy fruits of repentance, are cleansed after death by cleansing pains”

and…

“Orthodox believers do pray and make offerings for the dead. For example, “Again we pray for the repose of the soul(s) of the servant(s) of God (name(s)), departed this life; and that he (she, they) may be pardoned all his (her, their) sins, both voluntary and involuntary.” …“Service Books of the Orthodox Church, vol. I: the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom,” St. Tikhon’s Seminary Press, (1984), Page 54. Cited in Ref. 1.”

Here’s the link…religioustolerance.org/purgatory6.htm
 
Without having an idea of approximate percentages, I can tell you that more than a few Eastern Catholics believe in Purgatory in a similar sense to what Latin Catholics have traditionally believed.
 
I remember seeing a Maronite Parish called Our Lady of Purgatory.
 
Seamus_L said:
Without having an idea of approximate percentages, I can tell you that more than a few Eastern Catholics believe in Purgatory in a similar sense to what Latin Catholics have traditionally believed.
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I have no doubt that that is true. However, I hope that these same Eastern Catholics of which you speak do not insist on medieval Western European notions of purgatorial fire as the way in which Purgatory must be understood, because such a notion of Purgatory (though not a state of purgation itself) is foreign to our Eastern tradition.
 
BVMFatima said:
Hello,

I am a Roman Catholic and I was wondering how do Eastern Catholics define Purgatory?
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Those who are now Eastern or Oriental but used to be Latin often mistakenly think that everything that the Latin Church teaches about Purgatory is what “Purgatory” is. Thus, they might say that Easterns and Orientals “don’t believe in Purgatory” (since there is a lot about the Latin Catholic concept of it that is foreign to Eastern and Oriental theology and spirituality). But a lot of what the Latin Church teaches about Purgatory is actually only theologoumena. If we understand “Purgatory” only according to the dogma itself, then Purgatory is indeed part of the belief of every Catholic - Latin, Eastern and Oriental. Non-Latin Catholics believe as much as every Catholic believes - that (1) there is a further cleansing after physical death (Easterns would refer to it merely as part of theosis); (2) that this involves some suffering for the soul (the suffering is not defined - i.e., the content of this suffering is theologoumena; it could be nothing more than a sense of loss of the “old self,” in St. Paul’s terms); (3) that the prayers and suffrages of the Church on earth, especially the Sacrifice of the Mass/DL/HQ/Badarak aid these souls in the afterlife.

Blessings,
Marduk
 
What do Eastern Catholics believe that is different from western ones? I know Eastern Catholicism is different from the west. Where does purgatory fit in as regards whether we are to believe it or not. Is it doctrine or dogma? I know there are differences but I thought, it seems mistakenly, that all Catholics had to believe the same things.

In my previous paragraph I don’t use the words “had to” in the sense of “must do” but in the sense as Catholics we all hold the same beliefs.

My reading may have been poor but I had formed the belief that while our understanding and explanations are different that Eastern Catholics fundamentally believed in the same concepts that we westerners call the Immaculate Conception (Mary was conceived free of original sin), original sin (we’re all pre-disposed to sin) and purgatory (we may not go to Hell but don’t necessarily go straight to Heaven).
 
BVMFatima said:
I remember seeing a Maronite Parish called Our Lady of Purgatory.
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Yes - but, if I remember correctly, OLOP was erected by Bishop Feehan of the Diocese of Fall River and was thus named by the Latin Diocese since we had no hierarchy in the United States at the time. 🤷
 
Denho said:
Yes - but, if I remember correctly, OLOP was erected by Bishop Feehan of the Diocese of Fall River and was thus named by the Latin Diocese since we had no hierarchy in the United States at the time. 🤷
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Oh okay
 
St_Stephen said:
What do Eastern Catholics believe that is different from western ones? I know Eastern Catholicism is different from the west. Where does purgatory fit in as regards whether we are to believe it or not. Is it doctrine or dogma? I know there are differences but I thought, it seems mistakenly, that all Catholics had to believe the same things.

In my previous paragraph I don’t use the words “had to” in the sense of “must do” but in the sense as Catholics we all hold the same beliefs.

My reading may have been poor but I had formed the belief that while our understanding and explanations are different that Eastern Catholics fundamentally believed in the same concepts that we westerners call the Immaculate Conception (Mary was conceived free of original sin), original sin (we’re all pre-disposed to sin) and purgatory (we may not go to Hell but don’t necessarily go straight to Heaven).
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Purgatory is not a term native to the eastern traditions. At death, the faithful, “fall asleep in the Lord”. Matt 12:31 implies potential forgiveness after death, or at least that some believed it possible: “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”

CCC has:
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.
1031 The Church gives the name *Purgatory *to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned. …
 
Seamus_L said:
Without having an idea of approximate percentages, I can tell you that more than a few Eastern Catholics believe in Purgatory in a similar sense to what Latin Catholics have traditionally believed.
Click to expand...
Doesn’t change what the Churches themselves teach. Many RCs believe in reincarnation or some new agey stuff, doesn’t mean the Roman Catholic Church actually teaches those.
 
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