Purgatory

==History of the belief==
{{Main article|History of purgatory}}
[[File:Pur 24 dore.jpg|thumb|200px|right|upright|Image of a non-fiery purgatory (Gustave Doré: illustration for Dante's [[Purgatorio]], Canto 24 in [[Divine Comedy]]). Right: Dante and companions observe. Middle: willing souls gather round a sweet-smelling tree with fruit they cannot eat, to be purged of residual gluttony.]]
{{Divine Comedy}}
While use of the word "purgatory" (in [[Latin]] ''purgatorium'', a place of cleansing, from the verb ''purgo'', "to clean, cleanse"<ref>Cassell's Latin Dictionary, Marchant, J.R.V, & Charles, Joseph F., (Eds.), Revised Edition, 1928, p.456</ref>) as a noun appeared perhaps only between 1160 and 1180,<ref name="leGoff"/>{{rp|362}} giving rise to the idea of Purgatory as a place,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=DnEQQaTQy4wC&dq=le+goff+purgatoire&pg=PA18 Megan McLaughlin, Consorting with Saints: Prayer for the Dead in Early Medieval France (Cornell University Press 1994] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160505101534/https://books.google.com/books?id=DnEQQaTQy4wC&pg=PA18&dq=le+goff+purgatoire&cd=4#v=onepage&q=le%20goff%20purgatoire&f=false |date=2016-05-05 }} {{ISBN|978-0-8014-2648-3}}), p. 18</ref> the Roman Catholic tradition of purgatory as a transitional state or condition has a history that dates back, even before [[Jesus Christ]], to the worldwide practice of caring for the dead and praying for them and to the belief, found also in Judaism, which is considered the precursor of Christianity, that [[prayer for the dead]] contributed to their [[afterlife]] purification. The same practice appears in other traditions, such as the medieval Chinese Buddhist practice of making offerings on behalf of the dead, who are said to suffer numerous trials.<ref name="EB">[http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9061946/purgatory Purgatory] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070610072120/http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9061946/purgatory |date=2007-06-10 }} in Encyclopædia Britannica</ref>

The Catholic church found specific [[Old Testament]] support in after-life purification in 2 Maccabees 12:42–45,<ref>Cf.{{bibleverse|2|Maccabees|12:42–45|NRSV}}</ref> part of the Catholic [[biblical canon]] but regarded as [[Biblical apocrypha|apocrypha]]l by Protestants and major branches of Judaism.<ref>{{cite web|editor-last1=Waterworth|editor-first1=J.|title=The Council of Trent, Decree concerning the Canonical Scriptures|url=http://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/trentall.html|website=Hanover Historical Texts Project|access-date=18 February 2015|archive-date=31 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200531072226/https://history.hanover.edu/texts/trent/trentall.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last1=Council of Trent|title=Decree concerning the Canonical Scriptures|url=http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/TRENT4.HTM|publisher=[[EWTN]]|access-date=18 February 2015|archive-date=23 March 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150323195835/http://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/TRENT4.htm|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name=EB/> According to the ''[[Catechism of the Catholic Church]]'', praying for the dead was adopted by Christians from the beginning,<ref>{{cite book|title=Catechism of the Catholic Church|chapter-url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM|access-date=18 February 2015|chapter=1032|archive-date=14 February 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150214044852/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P2N.HTM|url-status=live}}</ref> a practice that presupposes that the dead are thereby assisted between death and their entry into their final abode.<ref name="EB"/> The [[New American Bible Revised Edition]], authorized by the United States Catholic bishops, says in a note to the 2 Maccabees passage: 

{{quote|"This is the earliest statement of the doctrine that prayers and sacrifices for the dead are efficacious. …The author…uses the story to demonstrate belief in the resurrection of the just, and in the possibility of expiation for the sins of otherwise good people who have died. This belief is similar to, but not quite the same as, the Catholic doctrine of purgatory."<ref>{{cite web |title=2 Maccabees, chapter 12 |url=https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2maccabees/12 |website=United States Conference of Catholic Bishops |publisher=www.usccb.org |access-date=10 January 2020 |archive-date=9 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200809235017/https://bible.usccb.org/bible/2maccabees/12 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

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[[Tradition]], by reference to certain texts of [[scripture]], speaks of the process as involving a cleansing fire. According to [[Jacques Le Goff]], in [[Western Europe]] toward the end of the twelfth century Purgatory started to be represented as a physical place,<ref name="leGoff"/>{{rp|362–366}} Le Goff states that the concept involves the idea of a purgatorial fire, which he suggests "is expiatory and purifying not punitive like hell fire".<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/9873864/Purgatory_A_Study_of_the_Historical_Development_and_Its_Compatibility_with_the_Biblical_Teaching_on_the_Afterlife Robert Osei-Bonsu, "Purgatory: A Study of the Historical Development and Its Compatibility with the Biblical Teaching on the Afterlife"] in ''Philosophy Study'', {{ISSN|2159-5313}} April 2012, Vol. 2, No. 4, p. 291</ref> 

At the [[Second Council of Lyon]] in 1274, when the Catholic Church defined, for the first time, its teaching on purgatory, the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] did not adopt the doctrine. The council made no mention of purgatory as a third place or as containing fire,<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=xnqI8uSeekwC&dq=%22third+place+or+as+containing+fire%22&pg=PA208 Karen Hartnup'', 'On the Beliefs of the Greeks': Leo Allatios and Popular Orthodoxy'' (Brill 2004), p. 2008]</ref> which are absent also in the declarations by the [[Council of Florence|Councils of Florence]] (1431–1449) and of [[Council of Trent|Trent]] (1545–1563).<ref>{{cite book |title=Catechism of the Catholic Church #1030−1031 |url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm |access-date=8 March 2019 |archive-date=22 February 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190222071948/http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm |url-status=live}}</ref> Popes [[John Paul II]] and [[Benedict XVI]] have written that the term does not indicate a place, but a condition of existence.<ref name="Audience of 4 August 1999" /><ref name="benedictxvi" />

The [[Church of England]], mother church of the [[Anglican Communion]], officially denounces what it calls "the Romish Doctrine concerning Purgatory",<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/articles-religion |title=''Articles of Religion'', article XXII |access-date=2019-02-26 |archive-date=2019-02-27 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190227100234/https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/book-common-prayer/articles-religion |url-status=live}}</ref> but the Eastern Orthodox Church, [[Oriental Orthodox Churches]], and elements of the [[Anglican]], [[Lutheran]], and [[Methodist]] traditions hold that for some there is cleansing after death and [[prayer for the dead]].<ref name="Gould">{{cite book|last=Gould|first=James B.|title=Understanding Prayer for the Dead: Its Foundation in History and Logic|date=4 August 2016 |publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|language=en |isbn=978-1-62032-988-7|pages=57–58|quote=The Roman Catholic and English Methodist churches both pray for the dead. Their consensus statement confirms that "over the centuries in the Catholic tradition praying for the dead has developed into a variety of practices, especially through the Mass. ... The Methodist church ... has prayers for the dead ... Methodists who pray for the dead thereby commend them to the continuing mercy of God."}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|author=Jerry L. Walls|title=Purgatory: The Logic of Total Transformation|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kFqzG3UPz3EC&pg=PA61|year=2012|publisher=[[Oxford University Press]]|page=61|isbn=978-0-19-973229-6|access-date=2017-08-05|archive-date=2020-04-21|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200421113522/https://books.google.com/books?id=kFqzG3UPz3EC&pg=PA61|url-status=live}}</ref><ref name="Cook1883">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DPAGAAAAQAAJ&q=%22Anglican+orthodoxy+without%22 |last=Cook|first=Joseph|title=Advanced thought in Europe, Asia, Australia, &c|access-date=10 April 2014|year=1883|publisher=Richard D. Dickinson |location=London |page=41|quote=Anglican orthodoxy, without protest, has allowed high authorities to teach that there is an intermediate state, Hades, including both Gehenna and Paradise, but with an impassable gulf between the two.}}</ref><ref name="WipfStock2016">{{cite book|last=Gould|first=James B.|title=Understanding Prayer for the Dead: Its Foundation in History and Logic|date=4 August 2016|publisher=Wipf and Stock Publishers|language=en |isbn=978-1-5326-0601-4|page=50}}</ref><ref>Olivier Clément, L'Église orthodoxe. Presses Universitaires de France, 2006, Section 3, IV</ref> The [[Reformed Church]]es teach that the departed are delivered from their sins through the process of [[Glorification#Reformed Churches|glorification]].<ref name="PRCA2019" /> 

Rabbinical Judaism also believes in the possibility of after-death purification and may even use the word "purgatory" to describe the similar rabbinical concept of [[Gehenna#Rabbinical Judaism|Gehenna]], though Gehenna is also sometimes described{{by whom|date=June 2021}} as more similar to [[hell]] or [[Greek underworld|Hades]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/10797/jewish/Gehinnom.htm|title=Browse by Subject |access-date=2007-12-23|archive-date=2008-01-13|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080113000106/http://www.chabad.org/search/keyword_cdo/kid/10797/jewish/Gehinnom.htm |url-status=live}}</ref>