Catholic Doctrine & Sacred Scripture

Mariano: Thank you so very much for the article-Where is Purgatory in Scripture, and the fact that it makes so many references to scripture.

It demonstrates very clearly the utter desperation of the Roman Catholic Church’s attempts to find any little crumb upon which to build their doctrines. One verse here, another there, piled up and molded into the image of Catholicism.

Indeed “You might want to look at this whole passage in context” and you will see that there is nothing there, nothing but a platform from which to build a preconceived notion.

BFHU: The Catholic Church does not rely upon scrpture alone to form her doctrines.

That is what Protestants do.

Our doctrines existed before one word of the New Testament was written and long before it was canonized. I and other Catholics only cite scripture b/c we know that Protestants will only accept scripture so we do the best we can with what implication and hints there are in scripture.

The Christian Faith was taught to the apostles by Christ and passed on to worthy men able to teach long before any of the Gospels were written. The Catholic Christian Faith PRE-existed scripture.

Mariano: Moreover, read the footnotes in various Roman Catholic Bibles and you will see that they deny that, for example, 2nd Maccabees 12 and 1st Corinthians 3 are about Purgatory

BFHU I did and they affirm that

“This is the earliest statement of the doctrine that prayers and sacrifices for the dead are beneficial”….his (Judas’) belief was similar to, but not quite the same as the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory.

That is the footnote in my New American Bible.

That is not exactly a denial that the verse has anything to do with Purgatory. In the NAB there is no DENIAL that I Cor 3 15-16 is referring to Purgatory.

Mariano: Please tell me, if I am donating money to the Roman Catholic Church for mass intentions week after week, month after month, year after year, decade after decade in order to get my deceased loved ones time off of Purgatory how will I know when they are out?

BFHU: You won’t know.

Mariano: How will I know when I can stop donating money?

BFHU: You won’t know.

Mariano: How does the Church know when I can stop giving them money

BFHU It does not know. It is all up to the judgement and decision of God. We pray and offer sacrifice for our brothers and sisters in Purgatory out of Charity and submission to the will of God. Our giving and sacrifice and prayers are not demanded by the Church but given freely out of faith in the mercy of God. If our loved one is released from Purgatory our prayers and little sacrifices are applied according to the wisdom of God to the aid of other poor souls in Purgatory.