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The Catholic Church has included in its teaching the idea of a purgatory rather as a condition than a place. On 4 August 1999, Pope John Paul II, speaking of purgatory, said: "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 ...
According to Aquinas and other scholastics, the dead in purgatory are at peace because they are sure of salvation, and may be helped by the prayers of the faithful and especially the offering of the Eucharist, because they are still part of the Communion of Saints, from which only those in hell or limbo are excluded. [7]
the Church Penitent (Latin: Ecclesia poenitens), also called the Church Suffering (Latin: Ecclesia dolens) or the Church Expectant (Latin: Ecclesia expectans), which in the theology of certain churches, especially that of the Catholic Church, consists of those Christians currently in Purgatory; and; the Church Triumphant (Latin: Ecclesia ...
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.
Catholics believe the church exists simultaneously on earth (Church militant), in Purgatory (Church suffering), and in Heaven (Church triumphant); thus Mary, the mother of Jesus, and the other saints are alive and part of the living church. [148] This unity of the church in heaven and on earth is called the "communion of saints". [149] [150]
The Catholic Church does not consider approved apparitions, or private revelations, to add anything new to the teaching of Christ and his apostles, or public revelation, and belief in an apparition in never required of the Catholic faithful. [36] [37] In some of these approved apparitions, the visionaries have claim to see Hell.
While the Eastern Orthodox Church rejects the term purgatory, it acknowledges an intermediate state after death and before final judgment, and offers prayer for the dead. [77] In general, Protestant churches reject the Catholic doctrine of purgatory (although some teach the existence of an intermediate state).
The unbaptized dead the church commends to the Divine Mercy, since the Penitent Thief was saved without baptism. [21] Those Christians who die still imperfectly purified must, according to Catholic teaching, pass through a state of purification known as purgatory before entering heaven. [22]