What's the story behind the controversy of the catholic church as far as it making up purgatory to raise money

Question

I read in my history class a few years ago that the church sold relics to raise money for their catherals by telling people that if they bought them, they would spend less time in purgatory or wouldn't have the need to (Depending on how much they were willing to pay)
So I was just curious as to what the story behind this was and how it originated

Answer 1

+ Purgatory +

To discuss indulgences, first we have to talk about Purgation (or Purgatory).

Are you perfect now? Most people would say no.

Will you be perfect in heaven? Most people believe yes.

Purgatory (or purgation) is the process of God's love changing our imperfect selves into perfect beings. Depending on the amount of change needed by different people this can be an easy or slightly harder process.

Everyone in purgatory is on their way to heaven. I don't think Mother Teresa of Calcutta had a very hard time of it.

+ Indulgences +

The concept is that a person can do acts of penance now on earth to make purgation easier.

Penance is internally turning one's heart toward God and away from sin in hope in divine mercy and externally by fasting, prayer, and almsgiving.

A corruption grew in the Church many years ago where rich people would give enough alms (money to the Church) to essentially buy an easy way to heaven. This was one of Martin Luther's protests (hence Protestants) and shortly thereafter the Catholic Church cleaned up this practice.

In 1567 Pope Pius V canceled all grants of indulgences involving any fees or other financial transactions.

But remember because everyone in purgatory is already on their way to heaven, indulgences do not get you into heaven. They just make purgation easier.

I guess if you did not believe in purgatory then there would be no reason to worry about indulgences.

With love in Christ.

Answer 2

"Purgatory (Lat., "purgare", to make clean, to purify) in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God's grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.

The faith of the Church concerning purgatory is clearly expressed in the Decree of Union drawn up by the Council of Florence (Mansi, t. XXXI, col. 1031), and in the decree of the Council of Trent which (Sess. XXV) defined:

"Whereas the Catholic Church, instructed by the Holy Ghost, has from the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient tradition of the Fathers taught in Councils and very recently in this Ecumenical synod (Sess. VI, cap. XXX; Sess. XXII cap.ii, iii) that there is a purgatory, and that the souls therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar; the Holy Synod enjoins on the Bishops that they diligently endeavor to have the sound doctrine of the Fathers in Councils regarding purgatory everywhere taught and preached, held and believed by the faithful" (Denzinger, "Enchiridon", 983).
Further than this the definitions of the Church do not go, but the tradition of the Fathers and the Schoolmen must be consulted to explain the teachings of the councils, and to make clear the belief and the practices of the faithful."

~

The Catholic church didn't fabricate purgatory. The idea of purgatory has been around for ages. The good news is that the majority of modern-day orthodox churches don't believe in the idea of purgatory - or at least not the Catholic meaning. In medieval times, people sold indulgences - Popes didn't (as someone mentioned above). There was a Pope who DID ignore it though. Indulgences could be purchased to forgive your sins as well as the sins of relatives who were deceased. If you want a great picture of this, watch the movie "Luther". Great film - answers a lot of questions I had about that period.

Answer 3

The Church never sold relics to earn money promising less time in Purgatory. The Church did sell indulgences, but that was only because there were some seriously evil popes. And before you go into the Church's infallibility because of those popes, let me just tell you that infallibility means that they can never teach anything against the Church. Just because they did really bad stuff, they never TAUGHT anything against the Church. Sorry, I tend to go into long tyrades like this. =)

Answer 4

It would be best to clarify here that the church is composed of human persons - though the church may be deemed perfect, its people are not. But it is with the Grace of God that these things are corrected as the church continues on its journey towards perfection.

The concept of purgatory has been declared not to gain money for the church, though it is true that it has the tendency to be abused by men - purgatory is where the soul is purified before it could finally enter heaven.

Answer 5

well, the fact that pergatory doesn't exist.. read Eccl 9 "the dead know nothing"

with the whole Martin LUther movement.. that started out cause catholics sold these things, forgot the name.. basically buying your forgiveness card in advance before you comitted the sin.. basically a planned sin.. and you could feel ok about it.. and icons... relics.. the second commandment changed by the catholics said that you shouldn't make any images of god to pray to and what not, paul talks about in romans 1 as well.. so.. yeah.. that church wants money.. look at the vatican, it's the richest in the world..

Answer 6

The catholic church hasn't taught about purgatory, or limbo for that matter, since Vatican II in the 60's.

Answer 7

The doctrine of Purgatory, established by Gregory I 593

Purgatory, like many other Catholic dogmas, is based on a misunderstanding of the nature of Christ’s sacrifice. Catholics view the Mass / Eucharist as a re-presentation of Christ’s sacrifice because they fail to understand that Jesus’ once for all sacrifice was absolutely and perfectly sufficient (Hebrews 7:27). Catholics view meritorious works as contributing to salvation due to a failure to recognize that Jesus’ sacrificial payment has no need of additional “contribution” (Ephesians 2:8-9). Similarly, Purgatory is understood by Catholics as a place of cleansing in preparation for Heaven because they do not recognize that because of Jesus’ sacrifice, we are already cleansed, declared righteous, forgiven, redeemed, reconciled, and sanctified.

The very idea of Purgatory, and the doctrines that are often attached to it (prayer for the dead, indulgences, meritorious works on behalf of the dead, etc.) all fail to recognize that Jesus’ death was sufficient to pay the penalty for ALL of our sins. Jesus, who was God incarnate (John 1:1,14), paid an infinite price for our sin. Jesus died for our sins (1 Corinthians 15:3). Jesus is the atoning sacrifice for our sins (1 John 2:2). To limit Jesus’ sacrifice to atoning for original sin, or sins committed before salvation, is an attack on the Person and Work of Jesus Christ. If we must in any sense pay for, atone for, or suffer because of our sins – that indicates Jesus’ death was not a perfect, complete, and sufficient sacrifice.

Answer 8

i think that people like that were doing the talking but not the walking. They didn't practice what they preached, we as catholics are told not to lie or steal. What they did was like hustling. but don't hold what we did in our past against todays catholics. sorry i can't really help with the history

Answer 9

the selling of indulgences i think it was called
basically people would pay for their sins to be removed
which was just a good way of twisting someone's arm into giving money to the church out of guilt

Answer 10

Here's a good website that will help you out:

http://catholic.com/library/Purgatory.asp