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Purgatory pre-dates the specific Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional state or condition; it has a history that dates back before Christ, to related beliefs also in Judaism, that prayer for the dead contributes to their afterlife purification.
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 Catechism of the Catholic Church states: "By the expression 'He descended into Hell', the Apostles' Creed confesses that Jesus did really die and through his death for us conquered death and the devil 'who has the power of death' (Hebrews 2:14). In his human soul united to his divine person, the dead Christ went down to the realm of the dead.
The Roman Catholic Church offers indulgences for those in purgatory, which evolved out of the earlier practice of canonical remissions. [4] Others, such as Lutherans and Anglicans, affirmed prayer for the dead. [5] [6] Nonconformist Protestants, such as Baptists, largely ceased praying for the dead.
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.
In addition to the eternal punishment due to mortal sin, every sin, including venial sin, is a turning away from God through what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls an "unhealthy attachment to creatures", an attachment that must be purified either here on earth, or after death in the state called purgatory. [2] "
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.
Purgatory is where just souls are cleansed from any defilement before entering Heaven. Limbo of the Fathers, also known as "Abraham's Bosom", where just souls before Christ awaited Heaven. It is to this abode that the Catholic Church teaches Christ descended. [5]