Sin death and beyond

SIN, DEATH AND BEYOND: M.M.NINAN
there is a Purgatory, and that the souls there detained are helped by the
suffrages of the Faithful, but principally by the acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar
[i.e., the Mass]..." (Roman Catholic Council of Trent, Decree Concerning
Purgatory, Session 25, Wednesday, December 4, 1563).
Epiphanius (haer., lxxv, P.G., XLII, col. 513) complains that Acrius (fourth cent.)
taught that prayers for the dead were of no avail. In the Middle Ages, the Cathars
and the Albigensians, and also the Waldenses, and Hussites, each of which
rejected the actual existence of Purgatory. Saint Bernard (Sermon 66 On the
Canticles, P. L. CLXXXIII, col. 1098) states that the so-called Apostolici denied
Purgatory and the utility of prayers for the departed. In the 16th century, Martin
Luther, O.S.A. [Schmalcaldic Article, Pars. II. Art. II, Sec. 12-15], and John Calvin
[Instit. III 5, 6-10], denied the existence of Purgatory. The Eastern-Rite Orthodox,
e.g., the Greek Orthodox, seem to have a vague and indefinite notion of
Purgatory [cf. Confessio Orthodoxa of Petrus Mogilas, P.I., q. 64-66-revised by
Meletios Syrigos, and the Confessio of Dositheos, Decr. 18].
Here the dead begin their eternal fates after death, either immediately or after being purified in
purgatory. On judgment day, the dead are reunited with their bodies and their eternal fates
continue.
That is why Christ could say, "And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the
soul, but rather fear him who is able to destroy both soul and body."Matthew10:28.
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