Question about Purgatory

[Rae8]

We were wondering about something; Does everyone (who doesn’t make it to Heaven or doomed to Hell) go to purgatory or is it a place only for Catholics? Do Protestants who don’t believe in it or Buddhists, etc. still go there? And if so, are their eyes opened to the truth when they get there or are they still confused about what really happens after death?

 

[MarcoPolo]

If there were non-Catholics who make it to heaven, they would need purgation of any of their stains of sins just as would anyone. Presumably, their eyes would be opened as well, as insinuated by Paul:1 Cor. 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall understand fully, even as I have been fully understood.

 

[bobballen_18]

As Marco Polo stated, everyone who merits purgation will go to Purgatory, whether Catholic or not. All who die, regardless of their beliefs on Earth, will come to realize things they couldn’t/didn’t know on Earth.

 

[runningdude]

We were wondering about something; Does everyone (who doesn’t make it to Heaven or doomed to Hell) go to purgatory or is it a place only for Catholics? Do Protestants who don’t believe in it or Buddhists, etc. still go there? And if so, are their eyes opened to the truth when they get there or are they still confused about what really happens after death?

There are no Protestants or Buddhists in purgatory.

(To get there, they must convert to the Catholic Church following death! )

 

[McCall1981]

We were wondering about something; Does everyone (who doesn’t make it to Heaven or doomed to Hell) go to purgatory or is it a place only for Catholics? Do Protestants who don’t believe in it or Buddhists, etc. still go there? And if so, are their eyes opened to the truth when they get there or are they still confused about what really happens after death?

We don’t know exactly who is saved and who isn’t, but after death we are divided into those who are saved and those who aren’t. Those who aren’t go directly to Hell. Those who are saved go to Purgatory, then eventually to Heaven. It doesn’t matter where they came from or their state, everyone that is saved goes to Purgatory, just some longer than others. The real question then becomes, who exactly is saved?

If you make it to Purgatory, it means that you are for sure going to reach Heaven eventually, so in that sense our eyes are opened. I believe the theology is that we know we are in Purgatory when we are there, so we have hope, becasue we know we have been saved and will eventually get to God.

 

[runningdude]

Purgatory isn’t a punishment, its more like the lobby to heaven. When people sees the cleanliness and radiance of heaven, they voluntarily muddle around outside the gates until they are hosed down and clean enough to enter. Kind of like removing your shoes to avoid tracking in mud.

Previously non-Catholics would probably want to linger outside the longest to figure out what was going on…

 

[bzkoss236]

It is more correct to say that they go ‘through’ Purgatory (purgation), because it is not Church teaching that Purgatory is a place; only common speculation.

The only definitive things we know (infallibly) about Purgatory is:

1. Purgation/cleansing after death exists (for those on the road to Heaven)
2. Some kind of pain or suffering is involved
3. The purgation can be assisted by prayers and offerings to God.

 

[Jon_S_1]

We were wondering about something; Does everyone (who doesn’t make it to Heaven or doomed to Hell) go to purgatory or is it a place only for Catholics? Do Protestants who don’t believe in it or Buddhists, etc. still go there? And if so, are their eyes opened to the truth when they get there or are they still confused about what really happens after death?

Purgatory is not really a place but a state of being, if anything it is the queue line outside the Pearly Gates where we are purged of our attachment to sin.

We don’t work our way out, it is through God and Prayers of the church that we are Purged.

There are no second chances after death, so undoubtedly everyone will know the truth , but you will no longer be able to choose God if you rejected Him in life.

Pope John Paul II summed it up well as follows,

Every trace of attachment to evil must be eliminated, every imperfection of the soul corrected. Purification must be complete, and indeed this is precisely what is meant by the Church’s teaching on purgatory. The term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence. Those who, after death, exist in a state of purification, are already in the love of Christ who removes from them the remnants of imperfection (cf. Ecumenical Council of Florence, Decretum pro Graecis: DS 1304; Ecumenical Council of Trent, Decretum de iustificatione: DS 1580; Decretum de purgatorio: DS 1820).
It is necessary to explain that the state of purification is not a prolungation of the earthly condition, almost as if after death one were given another possibility to change one’s destiny. The Church’s teaching in this regard is unequivocal and was reaffirmed by the Second Vatican Council which teaches: "Since we know neither the day nor the hour, we should follow the advice of the Lord and watch constantly so that, when the single course of our earthly life is completed (cf. Heb 9: 27), we may merit to enter with him into the marriage feast and be numbered among the blessed, and not, like the wicked and slothful servants, be ordered to depart into the eternal fire, into the outer darkness where “men will weep and gnash their teeth’ (Mt 22: 13 and 25: 30)” (Lumen gentium, n. 48).

 

[Jon_S_1]

We were wondering about something; Does everyone (who doesn’t make it to Heaven or doomed to Hell) go to purgatory or is it a place only for Catholics? Do Protestants who don’t believe in it or Buddhists, etc. still go there? And if so, are their eyes opened to the truth when they get there or are they still confused about what really happens after death?

Then Cardinal Ratzinger also described Purgatory beautifully as follows:

"The transforming ‘moment’ of this encounter cannot be quantified by the measurements of earthly time. It is, indeed, not eternal but a transition, and yet trying to qualify it as of ‘short’ or ‘long’ duration on the basis of temporal measurements derived from physics would be naive and unproductive. The ‘temporal measure’ of this encounter lies in the unsoundable depths of existence, in a passing-over where we are burned ere we are transformed. To measure such Existenzzeit, such an ‘existential time,’ in terms of the time of this world would be to ignore the specificity of the human spirit in its simultaneous relationship with, and differentation from, the world.
. . .
"[Purgatory] is the inwardly necessary process of transformation in which a person becomes capable of Christ, capable of God and thus capable of unity with the whole communion of saints.
. . .
“Encounter with the Lord is this transformation.”…

–Joseph Ratzinger, Eschatology: Death and Eternal Life, p. 230-231

 

[aemcpa]

It doesn’t matter where they came from or their state, everyone that is saved goes to Purgatory, just some longer than others.

The Church does not teach this. It is possible to enter into the Beatific Vision immediately upon death.

 

[Rae8]

The Church does not teach this. It is possible to enter into the Beatific Vision immediately upon death.

Do we know who - which saints DID go straight to Heaven ? For example did Peter or Paul or other apostles? (We know Mary did of course)

 

[Rae8]

Do we know who - which saints DID go straight to Heaven ? For example did Peter or Paul or other apostles? (We know Mary did of course)

And there was the little Fatima girl. I believe she went straight to Heaven.