Do younger Catholics rarely sin?
SIR – When I was about seven, I learned from my Penny Catechism that “Purgatory is a place where souls suffer for a time after death on account of their sins.” Some 70 years later I am not much wiser – except that in 2011 Pope Benedict XVI said that “Purgatory is a process, not a place.” He explained: “A soul stained by sin cannot present itself to God.”
Sister Lucia of Fatima meditated a great deal about purgatory and she was of the opinion that what purifies us is love: “The fire of Divine Love which is communicated by God to the souls in proportion as every soul corresponds. It is said that if a soul is granted the grace to die with a perfect act of love, that this love purifies it totally, so that it can go straight to heaven.”
