Purgatory

=====St Catherine of Genoa=====
On the cusp of the Reformation, St [[Catherine of Genoa]] (1447–1510) re-framed the theology of purgatory as voluntary, loving and even joyful: {{quote| "As for paradise, God has placed no doors there. Whoever wishes to enter, does so. An all-merciful God stands there with His arms open, waiting to receive us into His glory. I also see, however, that the divine presence is so pure and light-filled – much more than we can imagine – that the soul that has but the slightest imperfection would rather throw itself into a thousand hells than appear thus before the divine presence."<ref>Quoted in [https://books.google.com/books?id=oPuESCWr9RcC&dq=Groeschel+purgatory&pg=PT36 Benedict J. Groeschel, ''A Still, Small Voice'' (Ignatius Press 1993] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150514165213/https://books.google.com/books?id=oPuESCWr9RcC&pg=PT36&dq=Groeschel+purgatory&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ptOKVJSQFMar7AabgoHQAw&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=Groeschel%20purgatory&f=false |date=2015-05-14 }} {{ISBN|978-0-89870436-5}}</ref>}}

So purgatory is a state of both joy and voluntary pain:

{{Blockquote|text=Again the soul perceives the grievousness of being held back from seeing the divine light; the soul’s instinct too, being drawn by that uniting look, craves to be unhindered”|source=''Treatise on Purgatory'', Chapter 9}}

[[Pope Benedict XVI]] recommended to theologians the presentation of purgatory by Catherine of Genoa, for whom purgatory is not an external but an inner fire: 
{{quote|"In her day it was depicted mainly using images linked to space: a certain space was conceived of in which Purgatory was supposed to be located. Catherine, however, did not see purgatory as a scene in the bowels of the earth: for her it is not an exterior but rather an interior fire. This is purgatory: an inner fire."<ref name="benedictxvi">[https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html Saint Catherine of Genoa] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309191119/http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html |date=2021-03-09 }}. Benedict XVI General Audience, January 12, 2011, accessed May 15, 2018</ref>}}

He further said that:
{{quote|"'The soul', Catherine says, 'presents itself to God still bound to the desires and suffering that derive from sin and this makes it impossible for it to enjoy the beatific vision of God'.…The soul is aware of the immense love and perfect justice of God and consequently suffers for having failed to respond in a correct and perfect way to this love; and love for God itself becomes a flame, love itself cleanses it from the residue of sin."<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html |title=Pope Benedict XVI, General Audience of 12 January 2011 |access-date=15 January 2021 |archive-date=9 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210309191119/http://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2011/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20110112.html |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In his 2007 encyclical ''Spe salvi'', Pope Benedict XVI, referring to the words of [[Paul the Apostle]] in {{bibleverse|1|Corinthians|3:12–15|ESV}} about a fire that both burns and saves, spoke of the opinion that "the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away.<ref name= ESs/>

{{quote|This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves. All that we build during our lives can prove to be mere straw, pure bluster, and it collapses. Yet in the pain of this encounter, when the impurity and sickness of our lives become evident to us, there lies salvation. His gaze, the touch of his heart heals us through an undeniably painful transformation 'as through fire'. But it is a blessed pain, in which the holy power of his love sears through us like a flame, enabling us to become totally ourselves and thus totally of God.<ref name= ESs/><br /> 
The pain of love becomes our salvation and our joy.<ref name= ESs/>}}