When we use our human reasoning it can cause us to question the doctrine of Purgatory. We might think that a loving God would never allow His children to suffer in a place like Purgatory, that upon their death they will be carried directly to Heaven. These conclusions can be made after we read the bible and interpret various passages for ourselves.

The problem with private interpretation is that the common man has difficulty in understanding the proper meaning of the Scriptures. St. Peter warned us that "in these letters are of course some passages which are hard to understand, and these are the ones that uneducated and imbalanced people distort, in the same way as they distort the rest of scripture - to their own destruction" (2 Peter 3:16).

Fortunately, Jesus established the Church as the "pillar and foundation of truth" (1 Timothy 3:16) to teach us true doctrines. We should not try to interpret the bible for ourselves unless we are properly trained and even then, we need the guidance of the pope and the bishops to keep us on road of orthodoxy.

Getting back to the question at hand, can a Catholic remain in good standing while rejecting the doctrine of Purgatory? The answer is a definite NO (or NON if your French). The Council of Trent has something to say about Purgatory:

If anyone says that after the reception of the grace of justification the guilt is so remitted and the debt of eternal punishment so blotted out to every repentant sinner, that no debt of temporal punishment remains to be discharged, either in this world or in Purgatory, before the gates of Heaven can be opened, let him be accursed.

Now being accursed is not a good thing if you want to go to Heaven. This text is from the Council of Trent, Canon 30, Session 6 (January 13, 1547). Ok, so its hundreds of years old but its still an infallible document binding to Catholics even today. If you want to see a modern teaching of Purgatory, get the new "Catechism of the Catholic Church" and check out sections 1030-1032.