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The Catholic Church holds that "all who die in God's grace and friendship but still imperfectly purified" undergo a process of purification after death, which the church calls purgatory, "so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven".
Purgatory, Peter Paul Rubens. The Heroic Act of Charity is a Catholic devotional practice. A Catholic who makes a Heroic Act of Charity offers the value of all prayers and good works they perform in their life, as well as any benefits they may receive after their death, for the benefit of the souls in purgatory.
The Western formulation of purgatory proved to be a sticking point in the Great Schism between East and West. [citation needed] [11] The Roman Catholic Church believes that the living faithful can help souls complete their purification from sins by praying for them, and by gaining indulgences for them [12] as an act of intercession. [13]
The Catholic Church had technically banned the practice of selling indulgences as long ago as 1567. As the Times points out, a monetary donation wouldn't go amiss toward earning an indulgence.
The Masses must be said consecutively one day after another without any interruption. If the Masses are interrupted even for one day, the process is null and must start over again. The only exception is if the last few days of Holy Week occur during the Gregorian Masses; in this case, the Masses may be stopped until Easter Sunday and then ...
Mainstream Catholic theology maintains that certain human actions can affect the purification process of the soul in purgatory. [2] According to this theology, good works are held to reduce the degree of purification required, which every person's soul must undergo after death in order to stand in God's holy presence.
Purgatorial societies are Roman Catholic Church associations or confraternities which aim to assist souls in purgatory reach heaven. The doctrine concerning purgatory (the term for the intermediate state in Roman Catholicism), the condition of the poor souls after death (particular judgment), the communion of saints, and the satisfactory value of our good works form the basis of these ...
The Catholic Church believes that the living can help those whose purification from their sins is not yet completed not only by praying for them but also by gaining indulgences for them [20] as an act of intercession. [4] All Souls' Day commemorates the souls in purgatory. The Late Middle Ages saw the growth of considerable abuses, such as the ...