The Bishop's Weekly Column from the Parish Bulletin

OUR LADY OF FATIMA

CATHOLIC CHURCH

The Pains of Purgatory

January 21st, 2008

The Teacher and His Flock (yesterday)

"Great minds think alike" the maxim goes, the rejoinder adds: "and fools seldom differ" ! Well apparently two clerical minds were moving along the same lines yesterday.

In the SSPX seminaries courses are usually taught from the notes of the professor without the use of a manual. In real seminaries prior to the Second Vatican Council seminarians studied from text books (almost always in Latin). What is my point ? Well if the seminarian studies from a manual he is learning what the Church teaches, if he follows along from notes of the professor, he gets the professor's teaching. More than once I discovered this for myself because I used the manuals privately.

I sat reading Tanquerey's A Manual of Dogmatic Theology in the confessional yesterday morning since a passage about Purgatory in the Pope's recent encyclical has been bothering me of late. Yesterday afternoon the following e-mail arrived:

I have been busy on my blog today. This should give you plenty of energy for your grand apologia for the Holy Father.

The bloguiste in question was "at it again". Strangely enough one part of his latest entry had to do with the nature of the pains in Purgatory. This was precisely the section I had read earlier yesterday (off and on) between 10.00 am and 10.25 am.

The bloguiste took issue with the Holy Father for seeming to transform Purgatory from a place of suffering by fire to the purifying look of mercy from Our Lord. The Pope writes as follows:

Some recent theologians are 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. 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.

The issue begins with the very first few words: "Some recent theologians". Okay, so now the trad pounces like a cat after its quarry..."recent theologians" heretics he'll be bound ! Wait a cotton-picking minute folks - the theologians aren't identified are they ? Just because they're not mentioned why jump to conclusions ? Let's examine what the Church officially teaches concerning the nature of the suffering in Purgatory. In fact, let me show you the scans from Fr. Tanquerey's own book so you can read CHURCH TEACHING for yourself...

Did you catch the first words here ? "The Church has not defined on this subject." Yes, folks, the CHURCH hasn't defined but some theologians hold opinions, and that is all they are, they may be probable, more probable, less probable, equiprobable.... (see the rules for which course to follow in the matter of opinions in a standard Moral Theology manual) !

So what of the Pope's discussion of the pains of Purgatory ? It seems to me that they are not dissimilar to the last sentence in this quotation from Tanquerey (if you re-read the Pope carefully that is):

Our blogging friend also takes issue that the Pope distinguished between the East (schismatic) and the West. Tanquerey does the same thing. Nobody suggests that Tanquerey's head is filled with modernism, however, the Holy Father gets hauled over the coals...

We must pray that Tradition will finally conquer the thinking of our Holy Father, and that he spends less time writing books and more time reading the right ones.

How do we know that the Pope didn't consult Tanquerey's manual for himself ? As for the bloguiste, at least he can see with everyone else what real theologians teach on the matter. Consider the quotation from Trent about not making things up as we go along....

+TF

PS. Just in case you thought I'd completely lost my marbles I personally believe the pains of Purgatory to be a material fire, but from what we see above there is room for maneuver since the theories are only "opinions".