[Forest Keeper]

Thank you for your comments on purgatory and thanks for the link (I will read it). I admit that purgatory is a difficult concept for me to accept, but I am respectful that others do. It sounds from your description that most "regular" people will wind up in purgatory. Do you happen to know if purgatory lasts for everyone (who is there) until the final judgment or does it last for varying lengths of time depending on the degree of healing needed?

[annalex]

if purgatory lasts for everyone (who is there) until the final judgment or does it last for varying lengths of time depending on the degree of healing needed?

We know it is temporary, and the Catholic belief is that the detour varies according to the individual burden. We should however be careful when trying to quantify the length of the stay. The popular notions that a certain prayer releases 1000 souls from purgatory right away is something that we are nto required to believe, -- these are private revelations that do no harm if you believe them, but there is no harm is being skeptical about them. The important thing in the Catholic teaching is that all souls in Purgatory are on their way to Heaven.

The Orthodox belief, as I just learned in this thread, is somewhat different.