We continue our series of posts in anticipation of All Souls Day.

I suspect that how people imagine Purgatory is mostly formed by images from the Italian poet Dante’s description in his work Purgatorio, the second part of his work The Divine Comedy. Whether one has read the work or not, the result is the idea that Purgatory is a place of punishment for sin because redemption and salvation are somehow incomplete. Many people carry the idea of a fiery, but temporary punishment because of their reading of 1 Cor 3:13-15. It is a misreading of the passage, but nonetheless, the images endure in the imagination.

None of that is the teaching of the Catholic Church.