| International Press Stirred by Purgatory |
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VATICAN CITY, AUG 6 (ZENIT).- It might be due to the lack of news typical of the month of August, or the proximity of the year 2000, or the even the pending European solar eclipse, but the fact is that John Paul II's August 4 catechesis on Purgatory has made a great impact on the media. "Purgatory is not a place, but a condition of life" ran the many headlines referring to the Pontiff's words as if these were a revelation at the end of the century. Vittorio Messori, the Italian writer who interviewed the Pontiff for his best-seller, "Crossing The Threshold of Hope," said to the Milan newspaper "Il Corriere della Sera," that, if the Pope's teaching has made so much news, some of the blame belongs to Bishops and priests, who seem to remain silent on what is essential: "eternal life." Messori explained that the Pope's series on Heaven, Hell and Purgatory confirms his thesis. He begins by analyzing the press' "revelations." "In the beyond, the coordinates of space and time, proper to the terrestrial world, cannot exist. Therefore, Paradise, Purgatory and Hell are not 'places,' but 'states,' 'ways of being,' which we cannot define, but can only believe." According to the writer, this doctrine was always taught by the Church, yet "even among practicing Catholics, it has provoked and provokes, the impression that these [teachings] open new perspectives -- doctrinal changes." The reason for the surprise, according to Messori, is due to "the long silence of a Catholicism that, in order to avoid being suspected of 'alienation in the beyond' has done nothing but concern itself with the 'here and now,' transforming theology into sociology." Purgatory and Ecumenism In the Roman newspaper "Il Messagero," Filippo di Giacomo said that "although the Orthodox do not believe in Purgatory, and Protestants abhor it, Purgatory, like Paradise and Hell, continues to exist and is a dogma of the Catholic faith." Di Giacomo explained that, although the doctrine took on doctrinal body in the Middle Ages, it was already well defined in Old Testament times, such as in in 2 Maccabees 12:42-45, when prayers were requested for the dead. The Orthodox do not adhere officially to the doctrine on Purgatory because it did not come up in any of the important Councils of the Apostolic and Patristic eras. The Protestants see in Purgatory a direct link to the much criticized issue of indulgences. The Roman faithful find in it a possible explanation for the prayers they offer, as the first Christians did, for the dead. If there were only Heaven and Hell, such prayers would be useless. |
