Is Eritrea the North Korea of Africa?

Should Eritrea's track record on human rights crimes and religious freedom warrant a referral to the International Criminal Court at The Hague? By Robert P. George and Thomas J. Reese, August 18, 2015. Is Eritrea guilty of crimes against humanity? The question evidently matters to the UN Human Rights Council, which last month extended for another year the mandate of its Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights in the Horn of Africa nation. This extension followed the COI’s release in June of a 500-page report detailing its abuses.The question should also matter to the rest of the world, given Eritrea’s serious contribution to the global refugee crisis, as seen through the continued flight of 5,000 Eritreans monthly from their homeland, many of whom are heading north to Europe.The COI report confirmed what the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), on which we serve, has documented for years: Eritrea is the North Korea of Africa. It is a totalitarian police state which rules by fear, not law, producing a tragedy for human rights, including religious liberty, which the world must not ignore. The regime of President Isias Afwerki and the Popular Front for Democracy and Justice have run Eritrea since 1993 after winning a long war for independence from Ethiopia. War with Ethiopia resumed in 1998, and while the conflict ended in 2000, Eritrea’s leaders operate on a permanent war footing. The government deploys a pervasive domestic surveillance apparatus. Eritreans constantly fear they are being monitored and can be detained. For a country of fewer than five million people, Eritrea has a vast penal system, and arbitrary detention is widespread. Moreover, Eritrea’s judicial system lacks any semblance of independence or justice. Citizens frequently aren’t told why they’re being detained or for how long, and those who are imprisoned often are tortured. Many are held incommunicado and some disappear and are never seen or heard from again. Civic space for the free and peaceful practice of religion is incredibly restricted, with the government grossly interfering with Eritrea’s four recognized religious communities – the Coptic Orthodox Church, Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism, and a Lutheran-connected denomination. It has kept Orthodox Patriarch Abune Antonios under house arrest since 2006 for objecting to its meddling in church affairs, and has deposed him from his position as leader of his church. The regime makes all other religious groups illegal. Imprisoned Jehovah’s Witnesses and evangelical and pentecostal Protestants routinely are tortured and pressed to recant their faith. Jehovah’s Witnesses are denied citizenship due to their conscientious objection to military service. Both USCIRF and the US State Department concur that Eritrea is one of the world’s worst religious freedom environments, with the State Department designating Eritrea a “country of particular concern” or CPC each year since 2004. Eritreans also are subjected to indefinite periods of universal conscription when they reach 18 and often at near-starvation levels, amounting to forced labor or slavery; women who serve often report being sexually assaulted. Hundreds of thousands of Eritreans -- between six and 10 percent of the country’s population -- have fled such tyranny over the past generation. The government has a shoot-to-kill policy against those making the attempt and frequently tortures their family members. Those who leave are at risk of human traffickers capturing, torturing and killing them. Those who traverse Libya risk falling into Islamist State hands. Those crossing the Mediterranean risk drowning. Do any of Eritrea’s depredations amount to crimes against humanity? If the UN makes that determination next year, Eritrea’s regime and its rulers will be referred to the International Criminal Court. Meanwhile, what can the United States do? It can continue naming Eritrea a CPC, while taking specific CPC actions based on religious freedom violations. It can maintain its long-standing arms embargo against Eritrea. It can limit Eritrea’s ability to levy and forcibly collect a tax on Eritrean Americans by imposing visas bans on Eritrean officials.It can work with other nations to advocate the release of religious prisoners, including Patriarch Antonios, and support the efforts of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees and nongovernmental organizations to aid Eritrean refugees. Eritrea’s tyranny has unleashed tragedy. The world community must press for a reversal of course toward freedom. Robert P. George is Chairman of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom.

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Colombian guerrillas (FARC) hope to meet pope in Cuba as peace talks continue (CNS)

Representatives of Colombia's largest guerrilla movement have asked to meet Pope Francis in Cuba in September and have requested the Catholic Church name a permanent delegate to their peace negotiations with the government. Ivan Marquez, representing the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, known by the Spanish acronym FARC, at the peace talks, told reporters Aug. 17, "We want to give a heartfelt greeting to Pope Francis. We hope to have this opportunity." Pope Francis is scheduled to visit Cuba Sept. 19-22, but Passionist Father Ciro Benedettini, assistant director of the Vatican press office, said Aug. 19 that a meeting between the pope and FARC representatives "is not foreseen" during the Cuba visit. "Obviously, the pope is happy to work for peace," he said, but he would probably "look for a more opportune time" to express his support for the Colombia peace negotiations. The guerrillas, who have been in conflict with the Colombian government for five decades, "want to move the peace process forward, particularly with the support of the Catholic world," Marquez said. "The church can offer all its experience to help reach a final agreement." FARC and the Colombian government began the peace talks in Cuba in late 2012, hoping to find a way to end the conflict, which has claimed some 220,000 lives. After a meeting Aug. 17 in Havana with the president of the Colombian bishops' conference, Marquez tweeted: "We are optimistic. We are promoting bilateral cease-fire and righteousness. (The) church has renewed its commitment to peace in Colombia." Archbishop Luis Castro Quiroga of Tunja, president of the Colombian bishops' conference, told reporters after his meeting with the FARC delegates that a final decision on a papal meeting in Cuba was up to the pope, the Vatican and the pope's Cuban hosts. Pope Francis, he said, has been following news of the peace talks, but would probably be interested in talking directly to those involved. The pope has said he would like to help promote peace, the archbishop said. The idea of the pope naming a delegate to the talks could be one way to do that.The goal is to negotiate an end to the longest running insurgency in Latin America, which dates back to the 1960s. The rebel delegation asked to meet with the pontiff through the visiting chairman of the Colombian Bishops Conference, Luis Augusto Castro, the FARC said on their blog. The pope will visit Cuba on September 19 to 22 as part of a tour that will also take him to the United States. Francis played the role of mediator in preliminary discussions between the United States and Cuba on restoring bilateral ties, which finally did happen on July 20. Sources: http://www.france24.com/en/20150818-colombias-farc-rebels-request-meeting-with-pope http://www.france24.com/en/20150818-colombias-farc-rebels-request-meeting-with-pope

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Lesson for the season

The picture exempted from today's illustration is set aside to teach us something amazing and something only grace could permit.

Here Mary is willing to allow God use her for a great job and that job is that of redeeming the whole world. Not only was she willing she was ready. Even Jesus Christ himself was willing when God asked "who will I send?"

Do you know what was the reply the hosts of angels gave him? Can you remember what jesus' reply was? He said "Lord, here I am send me" ... Jesus did not take the fact that he was the son of God but addressed His Father as Lord.

How many of us will let the Father use us for his Glory.

Note, for you to be a pencil in the hand of the creator, did you know that there are innumerable blessings attached to this. Let's take a look at human instincts. If you are a good artist and your tool is is a pencil what do you think you'll do with that precious tool?

 First you'll take care of it, use it to produce sketches that will please you and than polish it when it is blunt and after the day's use, you'll keep that special pencil safe from dangers like theft and other sorts of evil that may befall this pencil. How much more your God. He will do exceedingly. Let God use you this season to show love to your neighbor and to your community. The Lord help you all this season, Amen. The Lord will bless you and keep you safe ...

Amen Dominus vobiscum!

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A Brief Story of Christmas (Christ's Birth)

Merry Christmas from the stables of Mary the Queen, Families of Prof.Ikpotokin F.O, Mr. Osas Ikpotokin (mSc.), Bar. J.O Oladele, Dr and Dr (Mrs.) Aluya, Engnr. Lukeman Afolayo, Chief Oseremen, and a whole lots of them wish you a fantastic and meaty *winks* Christmas and a prosperous New Year ahead.

May God bless you all. Amen!

Signed:

Dr. Samuel Lawrence, Elijah Ehiakhamen, Okhumaile Sheriff, Onuda Daniel, Ikpotokin Samuel ,
Youth wing MTQ, Ekpoma, Edo state, Nigeria.

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News In Brief

Headline: Pope stops conferring title 'monsignor' on priests. Pope Francis has stopped conferring the title “monsignor” on priests. . . . Vatican vows cooperation with Dominican Republic in abuse investigation against nuncio The Vatican has promised to cooperate fully with prosecutors in the Dominican Republic who are investigating sex-abuse charges against Archbishop Jozef Wesolowski, who was recently removed from his post as apostolic nuncio there. . . . Gossips are 'Christian murderers,' Pope says “There is no such thing as innocent gossip,” Pope Francis said in his sermon at a morning Mass on September 13. . . . Eyewitness describes murder of Catholics in Syrian Christian village A woman who witnessed the murder of three Catholics in Ma’loula, a Syrian Christian village attacked by jihadist Syrian rebels, provided the Fides news agency with details of their deaths. . . . Coptic Orthodox leader resumes weekly public audiences Pope Tawadros II of Alexandria, who suspended his public appearances in July amid fears of anti-Christian violence, has resumed his weekly public catechesis, the Fides news agency reported. . . . 50-year prison sentence for Missouri priest in landmark child-porn case A Missouri priest has been sentenced to 50 years in prison after pleading guilty in a notorious child-pornography case. . . . Society must care for the young and old, its memory and its promise, Pope says Pope Francis emphasized the importance of care for both the young and the elderly in a message to participants in Italy’s annual Social Week. . . . Priest among hostages taken by Muslim rebels in the Philippines Members of the Moro National Liberation Front, a Muslim rebel group, attempted unsuccessfully to take over a government building in Zamboanga City, the Philippines’ sixth largest, according to CNN. . . . Acid attack on Catholic priest in Zanzibar A Catholic priest was badly burned in an acid attack in Zanzibar on September 13. . . . Vaticanenvoy investigating charges of lavish spending in German diocese A German bishop who has been accused of extravagant personal spending has promised to cooperate with a Vatican official investigating the charges. . . . USCCB committee chair emphasizes: do not cut food stamps Bishop Stephen Blaire of Stockton, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, has again urged the House of Representatives not to cut funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), popularly known as food stamps. . . . California bishops decry lengthy solitary confinement Before California prisoners suspended a hunger strike in protest of lengthy solitary confinement, the bishops of California issued a statement noting that “international human rights standards consider more than 15 days in isolation to be torture.” . . . Evangelical, Catholic legal scholars issue joint statement on the law 29 evangelical and Catholic legal scholars have published“Evangelicals and Catholics Together on the Law: The Lord of Heaven and Earth.” . . . Prelates call for immigration reform Archbishop Robert Carlson of St. Louis and Archbishop Wilton Gregory of Atlanta called for immigration reform in a recent video and newspaper article. . . . New York Times op-ed criticizes artificial-reproduction industry Two women who describe themselves as “former fertility patients who endured failed treatments” criticized the artificial-reproduction industry in a New York Times op-ed. . . .

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Catholic World News

Disgraced cardinal stalled investigation
of abuse in Scotland
CWN - August 23, 2013

Cardinal Keith O’Brien, who retired in
February after reports of homosexual
misconduct, derailed plans for an independent
investigation of sex-abuse problems in the
Catholic Church in Scotland, another Scottish
prelate has revealed.
In a letter to The Tablet , Archbishop Mario
Conti, the retired head of the Glasgow
archdiocese, said that Cardinal O’Brien was
the only Scottish bishop who opposed a
proposal for an investigation of the Church’s
response to sex-abuse complaints. The
investigation proceeded in other Scottish until
2012, but ended when planners concluded
that they could not provide useful statistics
without the participation of the Edinburgh
archdiocese.

Washington state attorney general:
hospitals must perform abortions
CWN - August 23, 2013
The attorney general of the state of
Washington has announced that any hospital
in the state that receives public funds must
perform abortions.
Bob Ferguson based his ruling on the text of a
1991 law that stipulates a public hospital “may
not provide maternity care without abortion
and birth control.”
The attorney general’s ruling does not apply to
private hospitals, but does apply to public
hospitals—including those with religious
affiliations. The ruling also applies to hospital
districts, and prohibits public contracts with
private hospitals that do not provide abortion
services.

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Catholic World News

Secular foundation grants $2.3 million to National Catholic Reporter to provide publicity for women religious
CWN - August 23, 2013

The Conrad Hilton Foundation has awarded a $2.3 million grant to the National Catholic Reporter to establish as global sisters net
providing greater voice to countless Catholic sisters around the globe.
The grant to the National Catholic Reporter-- newspaper with a long history of dissent from Catholic teaching comes at a time when
women religious in the United States are under Vatican scrutiny. Annette Lomont, the chairman of the board for the Reporter, said:We've been standing with sisters from the beginning, and I consider the grant encouragement to go on telling their stories.
The Reporter explained that the grant would be used to set up a network of journalists who will write about the work of women religious, and to help the sister develop their own publicity plans.
In January Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City,
Missouri the diocese in which the
newspaper is located said that the National Catholic Reporter should not identify itself as a Catholic publication. Bishop Finn pointed
out that in 1968 his predecessor, Bishop Charles Helmsing, had ordered the editors of the Reporter to remove the word Catholic
from the title of the publication. The editors refused.

The liturgical calendar for year 2012-2013 vol 6 ordinary time </b><b>ebook get it </b><font color ="#000000" now font
shop.catholicculture.org/liturgical-year-2012-2013-vol-6-ordinary-time-completed.aspx

http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=18814

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The Trinity

The Trinity is the foundational doctrine of God in the Christian faith. Although the word itself was not used in Scripture, it can be shown that the Scripture teaches the essential truths whichlead to the doctrine. In essence, the doctrine of the Trinity explainshow the following apparently incompatible statements can be true: 1. There is only one God ( Rom 3:30 , etc.) 2. The Father is God ( 1 Cor 8:6 , etc.) 3. Jesus is God ( John 1:1 , etc.) 4. The Holy Spirit is God ( 1 Cor 6:19 , etc.) 5. Jesus is not the Father ( John 1:1 , Luke 3:21-22 , etc.) 6. Jesus is not the Spirit ( Luke 3:21-22 , etc.) 7. The Father is not the Spirit ( Luke 3:21-22) ) The Trinity tells us that there are three Persons in one Divine Nature. The names Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are names of persons . God can serve as either a name for the Father or a name for the Divine Nature. Before delving into the relative meaning of Persons and Natures it will be useful to make it clear that these terms refer to distinctly different things. I will attempt to clarify this with an analogy. My hand has five fingers, but all five fingers are parts of one hand (and the words finger and hand do not refer to the same kind of thing). It is appropriate, therefore, that I will arrive at a different number if I count fingers than hands. Likewise, Person and Nature are different things, and when I applythese words to God I find that there are three of the former and one of the later. As useful as analogies can be to explain a concept, in all cases we find that analogies can only provide an accurate picture to a certain extent. Therefore it is useful to point out the places where they fail, and to provide a variety of them. We will then be able to proceed to an understanding by comparison and contrast. The analogy of fingers and hands breaks down in the following ways: 1. God is not composed of matter. Instead his Nature refers to the eternal perfections that he possesses: Love, Goodness, Power, etc. 2. God is not composed of parts. If God were composed of parts, then it would be necessary to have a cause for the arrangement of the parts, and something else would be fundamental. 3. There is only one Divine Nature. While there can be many hands, there can only be one Divine Nature. One can now construct another analogy to consider the Persons and Nature of God. We can say that the persons are like dimensions, and the Nature is like three-dimensional space. The dimensions are indeed distinct realities, which we may term height, width, and depth, but we cannot call them parts, nor can weremove one dimension from the space in which we live. Three-dimensional space is composed ofthree inseparable dimensions. This analogy fails at a certain point to describe God as well, because there is really no way to distinguish one spatial dimension as special or different from the others. As yet, however, we have only discussed how something can be different and yet inseparable. We cannot yet comprehend what the meanings of the words Person and Nature are. Persons are objects and sources both of communication, and of love. St. Augustine explains the passage"God is love" ( 1 John 4:8 ) by noting that if God is to be "love" for all eternity, then there must always exist Divine Persons in Godto love one another. Ludwig Ott suggests that we may think of Persons as somewhat analogous to personalities, John Henry Newman suggests that we might think of them as personifications of Divine attributes (i.e. the Son is the Wisdom of the God). The Divine Nature is that through which the Divine Persons are and through which they act. The Divine Nature is to the Divine Persons what the body is to a human person. However, as I noted before, the Divine Nature is not something material, rather it refers to the Divine Perfections as noted above. These next few points are somewhat detached from the above discussion, but it is useful to bring them up as they are common misinterpretations. Although the idea that the Divine Nature is Goodness, Love, etc. rules the interpretation of Divine Nature as a term meaning Divine species, the interpretation is voiced on occasion. This idea leads to the suggestion that the Divine Persons are just instances of this species. Divine Nature is not meant to be taken as a term for species in the doctrine of the Trinity, and if we do allow the term Divine species the doctrine of the Trinity only allows us to have one instance of it. One possible misinterpretation that one could make at this point would be to think of God as something like a man with a split personality. If you can imagine a split personality as a good thing, then this may have some merit, but it does not do justice to the unity of God. Believers in the Trinity recognize that there is but one Divine Will...

.. If you can imagine a split personality as a good thing, then this may have some merit, but it does not do justice to the unity of God. Believers in the Trinity recognize that there is but one Divine Will. This does not mean that the three Persons merely agree, but that there is numerically one Divine Will (there is a wrinkle on this, however, as the Son of God, since his Incarnation, also has a human willand thus we say that there are two wills in Christ ). It might be useful to discuss John 1:1 at this point. Once you have grasped this, it is worthwhile to note that there is an important related doctrine to the Trinity called the Incarnation . In fact, it is inseparable from the Trinity in discussions about the God. The doctrine of the Incarnation unites the apparently contradictory statements: Jesus is God, Jesus is man.

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Purgatory

The Catechism of the Catholic Church defines purgatory as a"purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven," which is experienced by those "who die in God’s grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified" (CCC 1030). It notes that "this final purification of the elect . . . is entirely different from the punishment of the damned" (CCC 1031). The purification is necessary because, as Scripture teaches, nothing unclean will enter the presence of God in heaven (Rev. 21:27) and, while we may die with our mortal sins forgiven, there can still be many impurities in us, specifically venial sins and the temporal punishment due to sins already forgiven. Two Judgments When we die, we undergo what iscalled the particular, or individual, judgment. Scripture says that "it isappointed for men to die once, and after that comes judgment" (Heb. 9:27). We are judged instantly and receive our reward, for good or ill. We know at once what our final destiny will be. At the end of time, when Jesus returns, there will come the general judgment to which the Bible refers, for example, in Matthew 25:31-32: "When the Sonof man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate themone from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats." In this general judgment all our sins will be publicly revealed (Luke 12:2–5). Augustine said, in The City of God , that "temporary punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by others after death, by others both now and then; but all of them before that last and strictest judgment" (21:13). It is between the particular and general judgments, then, that the soul is purified of the remaining consequences of sin: "I tell you, you will never get out till you havepaid the very last copper" (Luke 12:59). Money, Money, Money One argument anti-Catholics oftenuse to attack purgatory is the ideathat the Catholic Church makes money from promulgating the doctrine. Without purgatory, the claim asserts, the Church would go broke. Any number of anti-Catholic books claim the Church owes the majority of its wealth to this doctrine. But the numbers just don’t add up. When a Catholic requests a memorial Mass for the dead—thatis, a Mass said for the benefit of someone in purgatory—it is customary to give the parish priest a stipend, on the principles that the laborer is worth his hire (Luke 10:7) and that those who preside at the altar share the altar’s offerings (1 Cor. 9:13–14). In the United States, a stipend is commonly around five dollars; butthe indigent do not have to pay anything. A few people, of course, freely offer more. This money goes to the parish priest, and priests are only allowed to receiveone such stipend per day. No one gets rich on five dollars a day, andcertainly not the Church, which does not receive the money anyway. But look at what happens on a Sunday. There are often hundredsof people at Mass. In a crowded parish, there may be thousands. Many families and individuals deposit five dollars or more into the collection basket; others deposit less. A few give much more. A parish might have four orfive or six Masses on a Sunday. The total from the Sunday collections far surpasses the paltryamount received from the memorial Masses. A Catholic "Invention"? Fundamentalists may be fond of saying the Catholic Church"invented" the doctrine of purgatory to make money, but they have difficulty saying just when. Most professional anti-Catholics—the ones who make their living attacking"Romanism"—seem to place the blame on Pope Gregory the Great, who reigned from A.D. 590–604. But that hardly accounts for the request of Monica, mother of Augustine, who asked her son, in the fourth century, to remember her soul in his Masses. This would make no sense if she thought her soul would not benefit from prayers, as would be the case if she were in hell or in the full gloryof heaven. Nor does ascribing the doctrine toGregory explain the graffiti in the catacombs, where Christians during the persecutions of the first three centuries recorded prayers for the dead. Indeed, some of the earliest Christian writings outside the New Testament, like the Acts of Paul and Thecla and the Martyrdom of Perpetua and Felicity (both writtenduring the second century), refer to the Christian practice of praying for the dead. Such prayerswould have been offered only if Christians believed in purgatory, even if they did not use that namefor it. (See Catholic Answers’ Fathers Know Best tract The Existence of Purgatory for quotations from these and other early Christian sources.)
Why No Protests? Whenever a date is set for the"invention" of purgatory, you can point to historical evidence to show the doctrine was in existence before that date. Besides, if at some point the doctrine was pulled out of a clerical hat, why does ecclesiastical history record no protest against it? A study of the history of doctrinesindicates that Christians in the first centuries were up in arms (sometimes quite literally) if anyone suggested the least change in beliefs. They were extremely conservative people who tested a doctrine’s truth by asking, Was this believed by our ancestors? Was it handed on fromthe apostles? Surely belief in purgatory would be considered a great change, if it had not been believed from the first—so where are the records of protests? They don’t exist. There is no hint at all, in the oldest writings available to us (or in later ones, for that matter), that "true believers" in the immediate post-apostolic years spoke of purgatory as a novel doctrine. They must have understood that the oral teaching of the apostles, what Catholics call tradition, and the Bible not only failed to contradict the doctrine, but, in fact, confirmed it. It is no wonder, then, that those who deny the existence of purgatory tend to touch upon only briefly the history of the belief. They prefer to claim that the Bible speaks only of heaven and hell. Wrong. It speaks plainly of a third condition, commonly called the limbo of the Fathers, where the just who had died before the redemption were waiting for heaven to be opened to them. After his death and before his resurrection, Christ visited those experiencing the limbo of the Fathers and preachedto them the good news that heaven would now be opened to them (1 Pet. 3:19). These people thus were not in heaven, but neither were they experiencing the torments of hell. Some have speculated that the limbo of the Fathers is the same as purgatory. This may or may notbe the case. However, even if the limbo of the Fathers is not purgatory, its existence shows that a temporary, intermediate state is not contrary to Scripture. Look at it this way. If the limbo of the Fathers was purgatory, then this one verse directly teaches the existence of purgatory. If the limbo of the Fathers was a different temporary state, then the Bible at least says such a state can exist. It proves there can be more than just heaven and hell. "Purgatory Not in Scripture" Some Fundamentalists also charge, as though it actually proved something, "The word purgatory is nowhere found in Scripture." This is true, and yet it does not disprove the existence of purgatory or the fact that beliefin it has always been part of Church teaching. The words Trinity and Incarnation aren’t in Scripture either, yet those doctrines are clearly taught in it. Likewise, Scripture teaches that purgatory exists, even if it doesn’t use that word and even if 1 Peter 3:19 refers to a place other than purgatory. Christ refers to the sinner who"will not be forgiven, either in thisage or in the age to come" (Matt. 12:32), suggesting that one can be freed after death of the consequences of one’s sins. Similarly, Paul tells us that, when we are judged, each man’s work will be tried. And what happens if a righteous man’s work fails the test? "He will suffer loss, though he himself will be saved, but only as through fire" (1 Cor 3:15). Nowthis loss, this penalty, can’t refer toconsignment to hell, since no one is saved there; and heaven can’t be meant, since there is no suffering ("fire") there. The Catholic doctrine of purgatory alone explains this passage. Then, of course, there is the Bible’s approval of prayers for the dead: "In doing this he acted in a very excellent and noble way, inasmuch as he had the resurrection of the dead in view; for if he were not expecting the dead to rise again, it would have been useless and foolish to pray for them in death. But if he did this with a view to the splendid reward that awaits those who had gone to rest in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from this sin" (2 Macc. 12:43–45). Prayers are not needed by those in heaven, and no one can help those in hell. That means some people must be in a third condition, at least temporarily. This verse so clearly illustrates the existence of purgatory that, at thetime of the Reformation, Protestants had to cut the books of the Maccabees out of their Bibles in order to avoid accepting the doctrine

Prayers for the dead and the consequent doctrine of purgatoryhave been part of the true religionsince before the time of Christ. Not only can we show it was practiced by the Jews of the time of the Maccabees, but it has even been retained by Orthodox Jews today, who recite a prayer known as the Mourner’s Kaddish for eleven months after the death of aloved one so that the loved one may be purified. It was not the Catholic Church that added the doctrine of purgatory. Rather, any change in the original teaching has taken place in the Protestant churches, which rejected a doctrine that had always been believed by Jews and Christians. Why Go To Purgatory? Why would anyone go to purgatory? To be cleansed, for"nothing unclean shall enter [heaven]" (Rev. 21:27). Anyone who has not been completely freed of sin and its effects is, to some extent, "unclean." Through repentance he may have gained the grace needed to be worthy of heaven, which is to say, he has been forgiven and his soul is spiritually alive. But that’s not sufficient for gaining entrance into heaven. He needs to be cleansed completely. Fundamentalists claim, as an article in Jimmy Swaggart’s magazine, The Evangelist , put it, that "Scripture clearly reveals that all the demands of divine justice on the sinner have been completely fulfilled in Jesus Christ. It also reveals that Christ has totally redeemed, or purchased back, that which was lost. The advocates of a purgatory (and thenecessity of prayer for the dead) say, in effect, that the redemption of Christ was incomplete. . . . It hasall been done for us by Jesus Christ, there is nothing to be added or done by man." It is entirely correct to say that Christ accomplished all of our salvation for us on the cross. But that does not settle the question of how this redemption is appliedto us. Scripture reveals that it is applied to us over the course of time through, among other things, the process of sanctification through which the Christian is made holy. Sanctification involves suffering (Rom. 5:3–5), and purgatory is thefinal stage of sanctification that some of us need to undergo before we enter heaven. Purgatory is the final phase of Christ’s applying to us the purifying redemption that he accomplished for us by his death on the cross. No Contradiction The Fundamentalist resistance to the biblical doctrine of purgatory presumes there is a contradiction between Christ’s redeeming us onthe cross and the process by which we are sanctified. There isn’t. And a Fundamentalist cannotsay that suffering in the final stage of sanctification conflicts with the sufficiency of Christ’s atonement without saying that suffering in the early stages of sanctification also presents a similar conflict. The Fundamentalist has it backward: Our suffering in sanctification does not take away from the cross. Rather, the cross produces our sanctification, which results inour suffering, because "[f]or the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant; later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness" (Heb. 12:11). Nothing Unclean Purgatory makes sense because there is a requirement that a soul not just be declared to be clean, but actually be clean, before a man may enter into eternal life. After all, if a guilty soul is merely"covered," if its sinful state still exists but is officially ignored, then it is still a guilty soul. It is still unclean. Catholic theology takes seriously the notion that "nothing unclean shall enter heaven." From this it is inferred that a less than cleansed soul, even if "covered," remains a dirty soul and isn’t fit for heaven. It needs to be cleansed or"purged" of its remaining imperfections. The cleansing occurs in purgatory. Indeed, the necessity of the purging is taught in other passages of Scripture, such as 2 Thessalonians 2:13, which declares that God chose us"to be saved through sanctification by the Spirit." Sanctification is thus not an option, something that may or may not happen before one gets into heaven. It is an absolute requirement, as Hebrews 12:14 states that we must strive "for theholiness without which no one will see the Lord." NIHIL OBSTAT : I have concluded that the materials presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors. Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004 IMPRIMATUR : In accord with 1983 CIC 827 permission to publish this work ishereby granted. +Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004.

The Bible does not mention the exact word “ purgatory ,” but instead it makes reference to a place which can be understood as what is referred to as purgatory . To claim that purgatory does not exist because the exact word does not appear in Scripture is afailure to understand Scripture . What exactly is Purgatory? The Bible contains references to many Christian doctrines, butfails to call them out byname. One might as well even deny that there is something called the Bible because no such name is found in the Bible. Furthermore, one might as well deny the Trinity, Incarnation, and so forth because these exact words are not found in the Bible. The name does not make the place; the place must exist first, then we give it a name. We call this place “purgatory” because it means “a cleansing place.” Therein souls are purged from the small stains of sin, which prevent their immediate entrance into Heaven. In the Old Testament The first mention of Purgatory in the Bible is in 2 Maccabees 12:46 : “Thus he made atonement for the dead that they might be freed from sin.” Some people do not accept Maccabees as book of the Bible. This is unfortunate since it is that their Bibles have been edited and are missing books. ( Find out Why Catholic Bibles Are Different ) Even if a person does not accept the book of Maccabees, it at least has historical value for we can learn what the pre-Christian community believed. In Chapter 12 of Second Maccabees we read Scriptural proof for Purgatory and evidence that the Jews had sacrifices offered for those of their brothers who had lost their lives in battle. That the Jews prayed for the dead shows that they believed in a place where they couldbe helped (which we now call purgatory ) and that the prayers of their living brothers and sisters could help them in that place. Thisis closely related to theCatholic doctrine of thecommunion of saints. During the Reformation in the 15th century, when Martin Luther was deciding to remove books from the Bible, these words in the book of Maccabees hadso clearly favored Catholic teaching, that the whole book was removed from the Protestant Bible. Unfortunately for Protestants, even if they feel that the book was not inspired, it still tells us of the practice of God’s chosen people. In the New Testament In Matthew 5:26 and Luke 12:59 Christ is condemning sin and speaks of liberation only after expiation. “Amen, I say to you, you will not be released until you havepaid the last penny.” Now we know that no last penny needs to be paid in Heaven and from Hell there is no liberation at all; hence the reference must apply to a third place. Matthew 12:32 says, “And whoever speaks aword against the Son of Man will be forgiven; but whoever speaks against the holySpirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” Here Jesus speaks of sin against the Holy Spirit. The implication is that some sins can be forgiven in the world to come. We know thatin Hell there is no liberation and in Heaven nothing imperfect can enter it as we see in the next part. Sin is not forgivenwhen a soul reaches itsfinal destination because in heaven there is no need for forgiveness of sin and in hell the choice to go there is already made. Revelation 21:27 : “…but nothing unclean will enter it, nor anyone who does abominable things or tells lies.” The place that is to be entered (the place to which thispassage refers) is heaven (read the text around it for context). The Bible clearly implies a place for an intermediate state of purification after we die in the many passages which tell that God will reward orpunish according to a person’s life. What if purgatory really doesn’t exist? Ponder the following example. Imagine a Christian man, justifiedby the Lord, loses his temper and yells at his next door neighbors for letting their dog dig a hole in his yard. We can see that the man treated his neighbors rudely, albeit the neighbor’s behavior was also reprehensible. His actions would be considered a light sin (called venial sins by the Catholic Church). It’s not of the same moral weight as theft or murder, but it’s still a sin. After shouting at the neighbors, with all the anger and stress in his body the man walks into his house, has a heart attack, and dies having just committed a small sin in the final moments of his life. Remember, this man is Christian and justified by the Lord, yet has committed a sin. Does he go to heaven or does he go to hell? Are all sins created equal? No, all sins are not equal and even justified men of the Lord can make mistakes and sin. If purgatory didn’t exist, the man would go to hell for his small sin. God’s mercy is so great and our God is a just God that it seems unfathomable that he would condemn a justified man to hell for a small, yet unrepented sin...

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