Purgatory Is For Real : Good News About the Afterlife for Those Who Aren't Perfect Yet by Karlo Broussard

Author:Karlo Broussard [Broussard, Karlo]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Catholic Answers Press
Published: 2020-11-10T06:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9:

Purgatory in Magisterial Teaching

In the first-century Christian Church, the paradigm for discerning the truth of God’s revelation was to consult the apostolic authority. For example, in Acts 15:1, St. Luke records that St. Paul and St. Barnabas had a theological quarrel with some Christians from Judea about whether circumcision is necessary for salvation. Because they were unable to settle the matter, Luke tells us, “Paul and Barnabas and some of the others were appointed to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and the elders about this question” (v.2). Here, at the first Christian council in Jerusalem, the question as to whether circumcision saves is settled.

According to Luke’s record of the council proceedings, it was St. Peter who settled the debate and proclaimed the truth of God’s revelation: we’re saved by the grace of Jesus Christ, not circumcision (Acts 15:7-11). The council fathers also considered certain pastoral precepts for new Gentile converts, and with collegial consent, they decreed that the precepts be binding (v.28).

This Christian way of doing things was based on the fact that Jesus made Peter and the apostles the living teaching and governing authority for God’s Church on earth (Matt. 16:18-19; 18:18).

Like the first-century Christians, then, let’s take the question of purgatory to “the apostles and the elders” as they exist in their successors, the bishops of the Catholic Church, and see what popes and councils throughout Christian history have said about it.

Unfortunately, due to the limitations of space for this book, we can’t highlight all the magisterial references throughout history. So let’s highlight just the main ones.

Pope St. Gregory the Great

The earliest reference from a pope that we will cover comes from Pope St. Gregory the Great, though it comes from a source that’s not a part of his official teaching office. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), however, does quote it as support of its teaching on purgatory in paragraph 1031. The passage comes from his Dialogues, which dates to some time during Gregory’s papal reign (580-604), and it reads as follows:

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.175

Pope Gregory here is referring to Jesus’ teaching on the unpardonable sin in Matthew 12:32: “Whoever says a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.”

We spent some time on this passage earlier in chapter 5. Suffice to say here that Gregory sees Jesus’ words as revealing the existence of an intermediate state between death and the Final Judgment where some sins, “lesser faults” (venial sins), can be forgiven.

This intermediate state can’t be heaven, because there aren’t any sins in heaven to be forgiven.

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