Purgatory

[OnceUponATime]

I’ve been reading a lot of posts on here about death and heaven and hell and purgatory and ghosts and such. There are so many reports of people seeing dead relatives roaming around or old inhabitants of the house they are currently living in. I know that in Purgatory your soul is prepared to go to Heaven but is there any proof that a soul can’t be sent back to earth to try and do good works or something? I don’t know if I’m making any sense at all or if I’m just rambling but it’s one of those speculative “What if” types of questions. Any insight or opinions would be very much appreciated.

 

[richbansha]

Yes, they most certainly can and have been. Saul scoured Isreal for a witch to conjure Samuel long after he was dead. God sent Samuel out to Saul to scold him and to tell him he was done for.

 

[thistle]

OnceUponATime:

I’ve been reading a lot of posts on here about death and heaven and hell and purgatory and ghosts and such. There are so many reports of people seeing dead relatives roaming around or old inhabitants of the house they are currently living in. I know that in Purgatory your soul is prepared to go to Heaven but is there any proof that a soul can’t be sent back to earth to try and do good works or something? I don’t know if I’m making any sense at all or if I’m just rambling but it’s one of those speculative “What if” types of questions. Any insight or opinions would be very much appreciated.

There are no wandering souls or souls that have not crossed over because of unfinished business.
Immediately upon death the soul is judged (The Particular Judgement) and is either saved and goes to Heaven (probably via Purgatory) or condemned and goes to Hell. No souls are left behind to wander about.
For reasons unknown to us God sometimes allows us a glimpse of a soul in Purgatory but there are no souls down here wandering around.
Any spirits or demons here are most likely from satan.

 

[joshua_b]

The short answer to this would be “if God allowed it”. There is no CAtholic Doctrine that says it is not a possibility. With that being said, you’re getting into an area of theology as opposed to Church teaching. There are others who would disagree with me, and that is fine, but the Church has not ever declared any specific teaching in regard to your question that I am aware of, so in light of that, I would have to say it MAY be possible, if God saw fit to allow it for whatever purpose He may deem neccessary.

 

[Sir_Knight]

thistle:

There are no wandering souls or souls that have not crossed over because of unfinished business.
Immediately upon death the soul is judged (The Particular Judgement) and is either saved and goes to Heaven (probably via Purgatory) or condemned and goes to Hell. No souls are left behind to wander about.
For reasons unknown to us God sometimes allows us a glimpse of a soul in Purgatory but there are no souls down here wandering around.
Any spirits or demons here are most likely from satan.

I have to disagree. I don’t have it in front of me now (we’re addiing a closet to our den and everything is boxed up right now) but I was reading the lives of the saints and there was a priest that was seen apearring in a church that he served several decades ago.

Don’t recall the story exactly but it’s a fairly famous one so maybe somebody can chime in and fill in the missing pieces and/or correct any parts that I got wrong.

In any event, the spirit of this dead priest was seen appearing in the church. It seems that he still needed prayers to get out of purgatory and because it had been several decades since his death, people were no longer praying for him since he had pretty much been forgotten.

Anyway, some how he made this know to someone (again, I don’t recall all of the details of the story) and prayers were once again said for him and he made his way to heaven.

 

[AlegreFe]

I also heard of a person who passed and asked for permission to come down to ask someone for prayers because she was in Purgatory. If I recall correctly it was someone famous but don’t remember who it was. My mom told me this true story.

 

[thistle]

Sir Knight:

I have to disagree. I don’t have it in front of me now (we’re addiing a closet to our den and everything is boxed up right now) but I was reading the lives of the saints and there was a priest that was seen apearring in a church that he served several decades ago.

Don’t recall the story exactly but it’s a fairly famous one so maybe somebody can chime in and fill in the missing pieces and/or correct any parts that I got wrong.

In any event, the spirit of this dead priest was seen appearing in the church. It seems that he still needed prayers to get out of purgatory and because it had been several decades since his death, people were no longer praying for him since he had pretty much been forgotten.

Anyway, some how he made this know to someone (again, I don’t recall all of the details of the story) and prayers were once again said for him and he made his way to heaven.

You might be right. I’m not an expert in this area. What I wrote was paraphrased from the answer given in Ask An Apologist when someone asked for the Church’s position on the existence of ghosts. I can’t quite remember if it was Michelle Arnold or not who gave the answer.
The answer just stuck in my head.

Also we will never know who or when a soul moves from Purgatory to Heaven. Only God knows that one.