The Top 5 Reasons Why Modernist Heretics Hate the Doctrine of Purgatory

The Top Five Reasons Why Modernist Heretics Hate the Doctrine of Purgatory

Over the last 30 years, I have known and interacted with many self-proclaimed “modernist” priests - priests that are actually proud to call themselves modernists - and one of the many things they all had in common is that they do not like the doctrine of purgatory. As a matter of fact, many of them seem to actually despise it. This really bothered me. 

I went through a spiritual awakening in 1996 and at that time I began to take my Catholic Faith very seriously. My heart was set on fire as I spent time in Eucharistic adoration reading the sacred scripture and studying the timeless teachings of the Catholic Faith.

As my Catholic Faith grew through prayer and studying the truths of the Faith as taught in scripture and the timeless teachings of the Church, my understanding of purgatory grew simultaneously. I began to see that what we believe about purgatory is really a synthesis of what we believe about very important elements our our Faith such as salvation and sanctification, justice and mercy. 

The doctrine of purgatory reminds us of very important truths. For example: 

1. God is both just and merciful. Our actions have real consequences. Once we have repented from sin, God forgives us of the eternal consequences (saves our souls from hell) but the temporal consequences remain. This is where we have to make amends, make satisfaction, for the damage our sins have caused. If we fail to do this before we die, God in his mercy, will complete the process of our purification in purgatory.

2. Both His action and our action are necessary in our salvation. 

3. Suffering is the most efficient means that God uses to purify us so it can be both, an experience of evil, and a gift.

The Catholic Esquire explains this very well:

The doctrine of Purgatory is actually something we cannot get around but, even still, it has been fiercely opposed. The protestant reformers couldn't stand it. Martin Luther couldn't stand it and, in part, that's because the Church has a very important role to play as far as it is related to your eternal salvation and the doctrine of purgatory makes that very clear. Before I give the five reasons, I want to quickly define what we are talking about when we speak of purgatory. 

Purgatory, according to the Catholic Encyclopedia, is taken from the Latin word, "to make clean or purify" and per Catholic teaching “is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God’s grace, are not entirely free from venial faults or have not paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.”

Now it’s very convenient for protestants or even “Catholic” modernist heretics to want to pretend that this doesn’t exist because they say, “Well, Jesus Christ died for our sins and so all these things are wiped away and so purgatory is not needed.” 

But, this is because they do not understand the nature of sin or the nature of God’s justice and, most importantly, they don’t understand the nature of God’s mercy. Yes, you see, these modernist heretics that run around talking about how merciful God is and the protestants that run around saying that it doesn’t matter what you do in this life because Jesus died for you, what they don’t understand is the nature of justice and mercy. 

This is even true for Jorge Bergolia who claims to love mercy. The man doesn’t understand a thing about it and he runs around claiming to teach everyone about it and his false teaching is causing people to lose a fear of sin and to not have a healthy fear of losing their souls. 

We have to understand how justice and mercy work together.

Only God through Christ on the cross can possibly pay the debt that’s due to the sin, to the offense that we have caused due to our sin - only Christ could pay that debt. We are all in agreement there. Yes, only Christ can pay that debt to repair the breach with God, the Father and restore the relationship that is necessary for salvation, to put us in the “state of grace” which means that at some point we will gain eternal life.

However, there is one problem. What about the consequences of those sins in this life? You see, the sin has occurred in this life and has had negative consequences in time, in this life, in this world. It causes damage to the social order, to other people, to ourselves. 

We can’t harm God in the sense that we can harm other people but it does cause great offense and leaves wounds and reparation has to be made for those negative consequences. 

The famous example is the boy who is told not to hit a baseball in the front yard. He disobeys and the ball flies through the window and shatters it. If he is truly sorry, his loving father forgives him but there is still the broken window that has to be addressed. You can be forgiven and at the same time left with some repair work that has to be addressed. Someone will still have to fix the broken window.

This makes total sense if you understand that God is truly just and believe in the virtue of justice. God is going to require that somehow the consequences of our sin be addressed and ultimately paid for beyond the initial forgiveness that He offers through Christ’s work on the cross. 

That is what makes total sense but, here is where the mercy part comes in. Sometimes in this life, we live in a way that we aren’t suffering much at all and we don’t do anything at all to make up for these sins - these numerous, almost uncountable number of sins that we commit while we are alive in this world and by the time we die, even if we are in the state of grace, there is still all of this damage that we have left behind that needs some sort of redress. 

And, on top of that, not all of the damage we cause through our sin can be repaired in this life, within time in this world which is only temporary. This is where purgatory comes in. 

Scripture tells us that “Nothing unclean will enter heaven” and purgatory is this merciful opportunity for us to become clean and to repair that damage and then once that is complete we will enjoy the beatific vision. 

This is how the virtue of justice is satisfied. It’s merciful and still maintains the understanding of what Christ’s work did on the cross at calvary. Purgatory is one of the most sensible, reasonable, merciful and just things that you can possibly think of and of course it is because it is from God. 

So, why in the world do people hate this doctrine so much?

HERE ARE FIVE REASONS MODERNIST HERETICS HATE THE DOCTRINE OF PURGATORY:

1. Most people do not want to think about death. A lack of belief in purgatory keeps people from thinking about death. How many people do you know that never think about death or avoid it as much as possible? They are afraid of it. This leads them to live as if actions do not have repercussions. If you are aware of purgatory and are reminded of the suffering that the poor souls there undergo because of the sins that they committed in this life which they did not make amends for, it naturally makes you think about your own actions and what will happen when you die. This way you will take steps to prepare for a holy death. 

2. Believing in purgatory gives us a feeling of guilt over the bad things we have done and modernist heretics do not want to feel guilty about anything. One of the things we desperately need in the world today is a good, healthy sense of “Catholic guilt.” We need to bring it back. These modernists have done everything they can to rid the faith, the Church, of this Catholic guilt; they even disparage it. Guilt is a good thing; it means your conscience (your sense of right and wrong) is working. Purgatory helps us to keep our consciences working in a healthy way. 

3. Purgatory forces people to face and deal with the consequences of their sins. It forces people to face that what they do in this life actually matters. This isn’t just a play time for 50-80 years before we all go to heaven. God created this world and put us here for a reason. What we do here matters and people do not like that pressure.

4. Purgatory forces us to think about where our deceased loved ones actually are right now. How common is it during a Novus Ordo Funeral Mass for a priest to tell the family and friends that the deceased person is already in heaven? Very! How many times on social media do you read a post about the death of someone and they are said to be with the angels in heaven or having fun with other deceased family members and friends? It seems that everyone, no matter how they lived their life, is automatically canonized. 
Purgatory is that faithful, consistent reminder that it is more than likely, not the case. Even if your loved ones are not in hell, they could be in purgatory suffering greatly and it is on us, on you, to relieve them of their suffering through prayer, fasting and almsgiving and in a very special way through the opportunities that the Church gives us through the gift of indulgences. But, unfortunately, people do not want to think that their loved ones are not currently in heaven. It is disturbing and people do not like to be disturbed just like they do not want to feel guilt or think about death. 

5. Believing in purgatory means the Church has been right the whole time and that we need the Church, we need the hierarchy, we need the authority that Christ gave the Church to grant indulgences which are very merciful; very merciful medicine and relief from the pains and fires of purgatory for ourselves and for our loved ones. This is a very important function of the Church. Protestantism is based on a rejection of Church authority. Martin Luther wanted to go off and start his own guilt free religion so he could do whatever he wanted because he was so utterly scrupulous that he did not think he could ever make it to heaven. In this way he could reason that the church isn’t necessary at all nor are the sacrament or the need for indulgences.