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Summary
- Purgatory is defined Catholic teaching: a final purification after death for people who die in God’s grace but are still imperfectly purified, all of whom reach heaven.
- The Church formulated the doctrine especially at the Councils of Florence (1439) and Trent (1563).
- The Catechism cites the prayer for the dead in 2 Maccabees 12:46, along with 1 Corinthians 3:15 and Matthew 12:32.
- The limbo of infants was a theory, named around the turn of the 13th century, that unbaptised babies are kept from the vision of God but suffer no other punishment; it was never defined.
- The International Theological Commission’s 2007 study calls limbo “a possible theological hypothesis” and notes that the 1992 Catechism does not mention it.
- The Orthodox Church prays for the dead but does not accept purgatory as a third state, and the Church of England’s Articles and the Westminster Confession reject purgatory.
- The Catechism entrusts children who die without baptism to the mercy of God and says there is hope of a way of salvation for them.
Bibliography (Click to show)
- Scripture is quoted from the Douay-Rheims Bible, 1899 American edition (2 Maccabees 12:43 and 12:46), and the King James Version (1 Corinthians 3:15, Matthew 12:32, John 3:5), from BibleGateway. Mark 10:14 appears in the Catechism’s own wording.
- Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 1030–1032 (purgatory), paragraph 633 (Abraham’s bosom), paragraph 1250 (infant baptism) and paragraphs 1257 and 1261 (the necessity of baptism; children who die without baptism).
- Code of Canon Law (1983), canon 867.
- Council of Florence, Session 6, 6 July 1439, decree of union with the Greeks, in the translation of Norman P. Tanner, Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (1990), via Papal Encyclicals Online.
- Council of Trent, Twenty-Fifth Session, Decree concerning Purgatory, 3–4 December 1563, trans. J. Waterworth (1848), Hanover Historical Texts Project.
- International Theological Commission, The Hope of Salvation for Infants Who Die Without Being Baptised, approved for publication in 2007.
- The Holy See, International Theological Commission: Profile, and John Paul II, Tredecim anni (6 August 1982), the Commission’s statutes.
- The Holy See, Benedict XVI (dates of the pontificate, 2005–2013).
- Patrick Toner, Limbo, The Catholic Encyclopedia, vol. 9 (1910).
- Orthodox Church in America, Indulgences and Prayers for the Departed, Questions and Answers.
- Orthodox Church in America, The Orthodox Faith, Volume II: Funeral (the hymn Eternal Memory).
- Orthodox Church in America, History: Answers and Reflections for Discussion (the Council of Florence and Mark of Ephesus).
- Church of England, Articles of Religion, Articles VI and XXII.
- Westminster Confession of Faith (1646), chapters 1.3 and 32.1, as published by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.
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