Why would we need Purgatory if we go to confession?

[Arebella]

I am a cradle Catholic but there is something that has always confused me about Purgatory. I was always taught that Purgatory was a place where our souls go to be purified from the effects of sin and that only the pure from sin can go on to be with God in Heaven. Here’s the part that confuses me - if we have faithfully gone to confession and those sins have been forgiven, if we are in a state of grace when we die, why do we need to go to Purgatory to be cleansed of them? Haven’t confessed and absolved sins already been wiped clean from our souls?

 

[Fr.Charles_Grondin]

Baltimore Catechism:

Q. 803. Does not the Sacrament of Penance remit all punishment due to sin?

A. The Sacrament of Penance remits the eternal punishment due to sin, but it does not always remit the temporal punishment which God requires as satisfaction for our sins.

Catechism of the Catholic Church (emphasis added):

**1496 **The spiritual effects of the sacrament of Penance are:

• reconciliation with God by which the penitent recovers grace;
• reconciliation with the Church;
• remission of the eternal punishment incurred by mortal sins;
• remission, at least in part, of temporal punishments resulting from sin;
• peace and serenity of conscience, and spiritual consolation;
• an increase of spiritual strength for the Christian battle.

Confession does not remit all temporal punishment due to sin. That is fulfilled through prayer, fasting, almsgiving; all spiritual and corporal works of mercy, indulgences, and the patient suffering of the ills of life.

Purgatory fulfills any temporal punishment we have not satisfied in this life.