Faith Alone directly from Jesus Christ Himself.
Luke 23:39-43 ESV
39 One of the criminals who were hanged railed at him, saying, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!” 40 But the other rebuked him, saying, “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” 42 And he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” 43 And he said to him, “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in Paradise.”
I’ve never heard of Purgatory described as paradise... What good work could the criminal possibly have done to aid in his single statement of Faith to earn paradise, rebuke the other criminal?
The Church does not teach that everyone goes through purgatory. Neither does the Church teach that the stay in purgatory is measurable in units of time, as the purgatorial cleansing occurs outside of time. So it was entirely possible for the Good Thief to go through purgatory and yet arrive in heaven on the same day.
It is also possible that he was ready for heaven as he died. Remember that he did everything a good Catohlic death requires: he repented of his sin, suffered for it in lifetime, did the work of mercy by defending the innocent, and asked Christ to save him. He died a good death; may we all be so lucky.
Regarding “faith alone”, where’s the chapter and verse on that? I can show you chapter end verse on the exact opposite, “not by faith alone”, James 2:24, in context.