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Correct me if I am wrong - Purgatory is punishment for some sort of sin, is it not? It is about purifying.

Corinthians 3 has nothing to do with punishment. It merely says the work we do in building the church will be evaluated by God, and not everyone will have done a good job. Those who do a poor job will suffer the pangs of regret and sorrow for having built poorly - but there is no punishment in this passage. Nor is there any indication this is a prolonged period of time, or that those who built poorly will not be allowed in Heaven until they have suffered enough.

It merely says the work we do in building the church will be evaluated by God, and not everyone will have done a good job. Those who do a poor job will suffer the pangs of regret and sorrow for having built poorly - but there is no punishment in this passage.

Pangs of regret and sorrow are "punishment" in the Catholic sense of the term. The Lord's punishment is not about vengeance; it is about justice -- the natural consequences of sin. That's what temporal punishment is -- the intrinsic justice in the cosmos such that sin results in suffering. With baptism and confession, we can be cleansed of our sins, in the sense that we become 'saved' through grace and avoid ETERNAL damnation. But the debt of our temporal punishment -- the natural consequences of sin -- still need to be paid. Purgatory is the name for the suffering of temporal punishment.

For example, if I cheat on my wife, God will forgive me if I sincerely seek contrition. But the trust of my wife in my faithfulness will be severely damaged, and the quality of our relationship will suffer, until I regain the trust. The suffering I experience as a consequence of my sin remains, even after God has forgiven me. This is an example of "purgation" -- the 'fire' that is a natural consequence of sin. Just as it can occur in life, Catholics believe a similar kind of suffering continues after death, as a preparation for heaven, and whatever that may be -- a state, place, etc. -- the name for it is "Purgatory." The concept is actually very similar to the Hindu and Buddhist notions of 'karma,' but I wouldn't want to draw the analogy too closely.