I recently watched a debate that took place between a Catholic and an Orthodox on the topic of purgatory. I observed the Orthodox caricaturize the Catholic view of purgatory, only to later describe the Orthodox view of the afterlife in terms that were practically identical with the authentic Catholic view.
Many Orthodox are under the impression that their tradition rejects purgatory, but is this true? In order to answer this question, it is important to consider what the Catholic Church has actually defined about purgatory.
It may come as a surprise to some Catholics, but the Church has not defined purgatory as a temporal place with a literal fire. In fact, the Catholic dogma of purgatory is more vague than that—simply referring to a concept of postmortem purification. This is why Ludwig Ott, author of Fundamentals of Christian Doctrine, can say,
Out of consideration for the separated Greeks, who reject the notion of a purifying fire, the official declarations of the councils speak only of purifying punishments (poena purgatoriae), not of purifying fire.
Granted, some well respected private revelations portray purgatory as no picnic. But if we’re talking about official teaching, the Catholic Church does not teach that purgatory is a physical location experienced in time with a literal fire. As Pope Benedict XVI puts it, purgatory, for Catholics, is best seen as an encounter with Christ—not a literal fire experienced temporally:
Some recent theologians are of the opinion that the fire which both burns and saves is Christ himself, the Judge and Saviour. The encounter with him is the decisive act of judgement. Before his gaze all falsehood melts away. This encounter with him, as it burns us, transforms and frees us, allowing us to become truly ourselves.
Contrast this with the Eastern Orthodox priest and apologist Fr. Andrew Damick’s concept of “Catholic purgatory”:
Orthodoxy agrees that there is a certain purgation needed for the souls of the departed destined for heaven, but that experience has never been codified with the temporal model of years of suffering employed by Rome in the purgatory doctrine.
But do Eastern Orthodox have a similar concept in their tradition to the real Catholic teaching on purgatory? Oddly enough, the Orthodox have synodally affirmed the concept of purgatory hook, line, and sinker! The Confession of Dositheus, adopted by the Orthodox Synod of Jerusalem (1672), states in no uncertain terms:
And the souls of those involved in mortal sins, who have not departed in despair but while still living in the body, though without bringing forth any fruits of repentance, have repented—by pouring forth tears, by kneeling while watching in prayers, by afflicting themselves, by relieving the poor, and finally by showing forth by their works their love towards God and their neighbor, and which the Catholic Church has from the beginning rightly called satisfaction. [Their souls] depart into Hades, and there endure the punishment due to the sins they have committed. But they are aware of their future release from there, and are delivered by the Supreme Goodness, through the prayers of the priests, and the good works which the relatives of each do for their departed.
Since the Orthodox lack an objectively identifiable teaching authority, some Orthodox today reject this synodal teaching on purgatory as authoritative in Orthodoxy. However, Orthodox scholars, such as Fr. Dumitru Staniloae, affirm (albeit unintentionally) the Catholic view of purgatory even without appealing to the Synod of Jerusalem. After going to great length to deny what he perceives to be the Catholic view, Staniloae presents the Orthodox view of the afterlife He states,
This makes it possible for those in hell who are not radically different from those on the lowest levels of paradise to pass over to paradise before the Last Judgment, through the prayers of the saints and those on earth. . . . Up until the Last Judgement, those in hell who do not totally lack faith in Christ can also be moved to the paradise of communion with Christ. . . . These are persons who through their kindness and their reduced faith did not commit acts that damaged the life and salvation of others—acts such as homicide; abortions; unbecoming sexuality outside marriage; depriving others of necessary things . . . or those who repented of these things before death but not in a degree corresponding to their evil deeds.
In other words, there are some who die with faith in Christ, but are imperfectly penitent. These souls can be aided by the prayers of the faithful, which will result in them being transitioned from hell to heaven before the Final Judgment. This is exactly the Catholic view of purgatory, as hell can refer to purgatory in Catholic theology, among its other usages. The Catholic view also says there is no postmortem repentance for those who die impenitent, but Staniloae is careful to note this transition is only for those who have repented of grave sins before death, though imperfectly. The group Staniloae describes refers not to those who die without repentance (the damned), nor to those who die perfectly penitent (the blessed)—but to a third group that dies in a state of imperfection. Simply put, this is what Catholicism identifies as the souls in purgatory.
In summary, many Orthodox often take great pains to deny the Catholic doctrine of purgatory, even to the extent of denying their own councils—but the concept of purgation still finds its way into Orthodox theology. This means that the Orthodox may think they have a significantly different view of the afterlife compared to Catholics, but in reality, they hold to a doctrine that is essentially the same as the Catholic position on purgatory. And so the road to Catholic unity may be shorter than the average Orthodox realizes.