Laudetur Iesus Christus!
SMP,
The Catholic Church still teaches and has always taught the existence of a state we call purgatory.
The Catechism explains it this way.
http://www.scborromeo.org/ccc/para/1031.htm
This Bible passage is probably the most obvious regarding purgatory.
"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).
The Jews have always prayed for the dead. The Catholic Church didn't start it.
Saint Augustine said this in some of his writings.
"There is an ecclesiastical discipline, as the faithful know, when the names of the martyrs are read aloud in that place at the altar of God, where prayer is not offered for them. Prayer, however, is offered for other dead who are remembered. It is wrong to pray for a martyr, to whose prayers we ought ourselves be commended" (Sermons 159:1 [A.D. 411]).
"But by the prayers of the holy Church, and by the salvific sacrifice, and by the alms which are given for their spirits, there is no doubt that the dead are aided, that the Lord might deal more mercifully with them than their sins would deserve. The whole Church observes this practice which was handed down by the Fathers: that it prays for those who have died in the communion of the Body and Blood of Christ, when they are commemorated in their own place in the sacrifice itself; and the sacrifice is offered also in memory of them, on their behalf. If, then, works of mercy are celebrated for the sake of those who are being remembered, who would hesitate to recommend them, on whose behalf prayers to God are not offered in vain? It is not at all to be doubted that such prayers are of profit to the dead; but for such of them as lived before their death in a way that makes it possible for these things to be useful to them after death" (ibid., 172:2).
"Temporal punishments are suffered by some in this life only, by some after death, by some both here and hereafter, but all of them before that last and strictest judgment. But not all who suffer temporal punishments after death will come to eternal punishments, which are to follow after that judgment" (The City of God 21:13 [A.D. 419]).
If you want to know what the Church teaches get a copy of the Catechism.
Take care.
), who purported to talk to angles and "know" stuff. She sez that this fella, without prior knowledge of her at all, nailed her life, every detail of what happened and what would happen. Before the end of the talk he volunteered that Your Uncle Mac still had a couple hundred years to work off against his suicide, then he would be ok....... A trick? My completely sane and reliable Sister is lying? There's no way a stranger could have known about our Uncle shooting himself like that....... This guy does business out of Florida somewhere.......
Kreskin is one of those "mentalists" and he's very good. HOWEVER, he claims the psychic stuff is stuff and that isn't what he does. What he does is observing the subject. Those folks are attuned to what you say, how you say it, body language, etc and can be very good at coming up with stuff. They also have picked up on what were the most popular names in a given era and will use them. They are also good on how THEY phrase a statement or question so that they seem to be right on even if they make a mistake. They are interrogators without par. If they spoke Arabic we wouldn't need to waterboard anyone who would talk at all... 