By Erika Anderson

Staff Writer

ATLANTA—Ask a child what she sees when she thinks of heaven, and she will probably say fluffy clouds and angels floating around playing harps. Hell would most likely be an image of fire and a red devil with horns and a pitchfork. Then ask the child about purgatory. The response may simply be a blank look.

Children are not the only ones who may not understand the concept of purgatory. For many adults, purgatory is a confusing church teaching. Our primary response when a person dies is that they are “in a better place.” But what do we know about that place?

“When we die there is the desire for all of us to go to heaven, yet heaven is a place without sin in any way, shape or form,” said Father Kevin Hargaden, parochial vicar of St. Joseph’s Church, Marietta. “We, on the other hand, tend to be sinners and we have to be purified from all sinfulness.”

In reference to heaven the Book of Revelation says that “nothing unclean will enter it” (Rv. 21: 27).

Especially formulated at the Council of Florence in 1439 and the Council of Trent in 1563, the church’s doctrine of faith speaks of purgatory in Tradition and Scripture as a “cleansing fire.”

St. Gregory the Great said that “as for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment there is a purifying fire. He who is Truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.”

But aren’t our sins forgiven through the sacrament of penance? “Yes,” said Father Scott Reilly, LC, chaplain of St. Pius X High School, Atlanta, but we are “still attached to that sin and not fully attached to God.”

“Sin still leaves a mark on your heart,” he said.

Father Hargaden refers to that mark as “residue” left over from sin.

Scripture also gives a basis for belief in purgatory.

In the Old Testament the Israelites prayed for the dead that “they might be released from their sin” (2 Mc. 12: 45).

In the New Testament Christ spoke of the sin of despair as not forgiven “either in this world or in the next” (Mt. 12: 32).

To further understand the church’s teaching of purgatory, it is necessary to understand the “double consequences of sin,” according to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1472.

First, a grave sin, such as murder, separates one from God and also from the chance to share in eternal life after death unless purified. In addition, every sin, however minor, carries with it an unhealthy attachment to someone or something that one must purify while on earth or after death in purgatory.

“This purification frees one from what is called the ‘temporal punishment’ of sin” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1472).

The church teaches that the souls in purgatory endure two kinds of suffering, namely, the pain of temporary loss of the sight of God and physical pain.

“If you have to be completely cleansed from what you have done, and you are close enough to God to realize you’re not there yet, then that could be pretty painful,” Father Hargaden said.

But the souls in purgatory also experience great joy because they are absolutely sure of their salvation. The church teaches that they have faith, hope and charity and know themselves to be confirmed in grace, no longer able to offend their heavenly Father.

In addition, the souls in purgatory can also be prayed for with the intention of helping them to enter the kingdom of heaven.

“It is the living who are in a place to help them by prayer,” Father Hargaden said.

“It is a great act of charity to pray for those in purgatory,” Father Reilly said. “We have the opportunity to act as intercessors.”

At the same time those on earth can work toward spending less time in purgatory before gaining the ultimate reward—eternity with our heavenly Father.

The church, having received from Christ the power to forgive sins, has the authority to grant an indulgence. Pope John Paul II, in the Bull of Indiction of the Great Jubilee Year of 2000, defined an indulgence as “a remission of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven as regards the fault.”

“Indulgences have to do with remission of sin,” Father Hargaden said. “It all ties into penance because when we sin there are eternal consequences.”

There are two types of indulgences, partial and plenary. A plenary indulgence removes all the temporal punishment due to sin, whereas a partial indulgence removes some or part of the temporal penalties still owed to God after he forgives our sins.

During this Jubilee Year a person can receive one plenary indulgence a day by participating in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist and by offering prayers for the intentions of the pope, preferably on the same day one performs the action designated for gaining the indulgence. Prayers to be spoken to end the spiritual exercise are the Our Father, a profession of faith and a prayer to Mary.

The actions designated for receiving the plenary indulgence include making a pilgrimage, if not to select sites in Rome or the Holy Land, then to the cathedral church and other churches designated by the local bishop. Archbishop John F. Donoghue has named 20 churches as pilgrimage sites. At the pilgrimage church one may take part in Mass or the Liturgy of the Hours, the rosary, the Way of the Cross or Eucharistic adoration, in addition to the closing prayers.

One can offer the fruits of his or her indulgences for one’s own remission of sins or for someone else, living or dead.

As faithful, we like to think of our loved ones in heaven, worshipping the Father as was his intention.

The Catechism tells us that the “perfect life with the Most Holy Trinity—this communion of life and love with the Trinity, with the Virgin Mary, the angels and all the blessed—is called ‘heaven.’ Heaven is the ultimate end and fulfillment of the deepest human longings, the state of supreme, definitive happiness” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1024).

“Those who are in a state of grace and are perfectly detached from sin when they die will enter into heaven,” Father Reilly said.

But at the same time, a person committing a mortal sin, Father Reilly said, is a person making a choice to go to hell.

“Hell is the utter rejection of God,” he said. “If someone dies in mortal sin, then he or she dies rejecting God. It’s an eternal choice.”

Father Hargaden said that the church has never officially said that anyone is in hell because there is no way of knowing that for sure.

“Through Scripture we know there is a hell. We know hell exists,” Father Hargaden said. “The church’s greatest hope is that hell is empty.”

The Catechism teaches that we cannot be united with God unless we freely choose to love him.

“Our Lord warns us that we shall be separated from him if we fail to meet the serious needs of the poor and the little ones who are his brethren. To die in mortal sin without repenting and accepting God’s merciful love means remaining separated from him forever by our own free choice...” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1033).

Scripture gives us the image of fire.

“Jesus often speaks of ‘Gehenna,’ of the unquenchable fire reserved for those who, to the end of their lives, refuse to believe and be converted, where both soul and body can be lost” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1034).

The Catechism also states that Scripture and church teachings on the subject of hell are a “call to the responsibility” and a “call to conversion” for man. God predestines no one to hell, but instead desires to have all of us in his kingdom.

Father Hargaden reminds us that God is a loving God.

“Our God is a merciful God, but he’s a just God,” he said. “He can’t just ignore the fact that we are sinful. But his mercy is generous enough to account for our sin and he has given us ways to have them forgiven.”