Purgatory is a place and state where those go for a time, who die with no unrepented mortal sins on their souls, but who still have either venial sins, or who still have temporal punishment due either for venial sins or repented mortal sins.

We can prove the existence of purgatory from Holy Scripture and from reason.

1. OLD TESTAMENT ... in II Macabees we read:

"And making a gathering, he sent twelve thousand drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead. ... It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead that they may be loosed from sin.''

2. NEW TESTAMENT ...

(a) In the Apocalypse (XXI, 27, we are told: "And there shall not enter into it anything defiled. ..."

If there were no purgatory, this would mean that God would have to send a person who died with only the slightest venial sin on his soul to hell with all those who have committed horrible crimes.

(b) In St. Matthew's Gospel (V, 26) St. Matthew is here speaking of hell. But by inference we are told that there IS a place we can LEAVE in the next world:

"Amen, I say to thee, thou wilt not come out from it til thou has paid the last farthing."

From this text we conclude that there must be a purgatory, or third place, where some atonement CAN be made after death. This cannot be hell, for we know there is no escape from hell. Nor can it be heaven, for nothing unclean can enter heaven. There must, then, he a third place. And this place we call "purgatory."

(c) Again we read in St. Matthew (XII, 32) that the sin against the Holy Ghost cannot be forgiven EITHER in this world OR in the world to come. We conclude from this that there ARE sins which can be forgiven in the next world. But they cannot be forgiven in hell, and could not exist in heaven. Therefore, there must be a third place where they CAN be forgiven. This place we call "purgatory."