You are all missing my point- Catholics could get rid of purgatory as an issue if they just did a worldwide "Prayer of St. Gertrude the Great" campaign. The Pope could proclaim a particular Sunday as "purgatory emptying day", direct all Catholics to say the prayer 10 times, and the place should be empty. Then, every Sunday, every Catholic could say the prayer once at Mass as sort of a "purgatory maintainence" program. Why hasn't this been done?? Don't you all care about the suffering souls??
Your missing the point, purgatory is not something to be gotten rid of any more than heaven is. It serves a purpose of His design: with out the gift of a place of purification, very few of us could gain admittance in to His kingdom. As far as prayer for the souls in purgatory I pray for them daily, so do many other Catholics. The unfortunate fact of the matter is that prayer is not a central aspect of everyones life, either for the souls of those in purgatory or for those still here on earth. And for many people, prayer is a theological vending machine focused on selfish petitions; "Lord give me..., Lord help me..."