Purgatory

[Dan-Man916]

The dogmatic definition of it, however, is not what most Romans think it to be… but an intentionally very vague definition that fits both Theosis and Roman Purgatorial Fire into the single exceedingly vague definition.

Yep, that’s pretty much it; vague.
it keeps everyone happy because it is open to various ways to understand it.

 

[Shin]

This book by Fr. F.X. Schouppe giving many accounts from the lives of the saints of what Purgatory is like is what people should read to gain a proper idea of it I am thinking.

 

[Dan-Man916]

This book by Fr. F.X. Schouppe giving many accounts from the lives of the saints of what Purgatory is like is what people should read to gain a proper idea of it I am thinking.

but i would caution that these are private revelations or visions, and that they must always be understood in the limitations of what the Church has taught. They really should never be taken as literal fact and truth because they are limited by the fact that they are private.

Sometimes people read these and take them to be gospel truth and form their image based on the vision rather than the Church’s teaching. It is one way of seeing Purgatory, certainly not the only way nor even the primary way.

 

[Shin]

There’s no conflict between the lives of these saints and Church teaching, and these certainly should be considered literal and as matters of fact as generally reliable as other historical facts, and moreso given the quality of the witnesses and tradition.

I think actually the opposite problem than what you have put forth is true often enough, that people have a secular or worldly view of the Faith and approach the lives of the saints and the events therein with overmuch suspicion. They try to excise the Faith from the saints, rather than realize it is the saints who bring us the truest experience of the Faith.