While Roman Catholics claim Purgatory is an ancient, holy doctrine of spiritual cleansing, in reality it was a dark and evil wealth building mechanism of the Roman Catholic Religion.
Started as an abstract philosophical concept borrowed from Greek thinkers evolved into the most successful revenue stream for the Roman Catholic Religion.
In 1476, Pope Sixtus IV issued a papal decree that officially extended the sale of indulgences to souls already trapped in Purgatory.
Before this decree, if you wanted a reduction of the time in purgatory for your loved ones, you needed to do work with fasting, praying or going on a pilgrimage.
After this decree, the Roman Catholic Religion allowed the living to buy immediate spiritual relief for their dead relatives.
This Business Model created a wildly predatory economy fuelled by fear. The most notorious one occurred between 1516 and 1517, when Pope Leo X needed to finance the extravagant construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome.
He teamed up with a corrupt German Archbishop who owed millions to a secular banking family. To liquidate the bank debt and fund Rome's massive building project, they sent out smooth-talking salesmen like the Dominican friar Johann Tetzel.
Tetzel would go into villages, stage terrifying theatrical displays simulating the agonising fires of Purgatory and manipulate grieving peasants into buying indulgences.
Parents were told their dead children were crying out from the flames, begging for them to hand over the very little money they had to the Roman Catholic Religion.
This business scam by the Roman Catholic Religion triggered the Reformation.
In 1563, at the Council of Trent, the Roman Catholic Religion finally acknowledged under the pressure of Reformation that the doctrine had been corrupted into a predatory money-raising enterprise, and by 1567 all financial transactions related to indulgences were banned.
Purgatory wasn't just a bad theology gone wrong it was a systematic ecosystem designed to make money for the Roman Catholic Religion and a mechanism to control the general public with fear.
Direct Quote: Pastor Larkins Dsouza