[armydoc]

It is not a mechanical thing.

"Say this formula and sign yourself and you will get an indulgence" sounds pretty mechanical to me. Oh, right, I forgot the "devout" part. My bad.

The penalty was paid by Christ. Our suffering, however, can be done in imitation of Christ for our good and the good of the Church, as it can sanctify us

No, no, no, no, NO! That's NOT what the Catholic Church teaches! There is a temporal PUNISHMENT, a PENALTY to be paid for sin. Your Church teaches that it can be paid either by you or by Christ. Both are equally efficacious. That is repugnant.

but we stay faithful to the Holy Scripture

Har.

[annalex]

My bad

Never, ever do it again...

That's NOT what the Catholic Church teaches!

You are a Catholic bishop to know that?

The purgatorial suffering is not paying for any sin. It is a residual effect of a sin already confessed to and absolved by Christ.

Har.

Well, you may find it amusing, but the situation is this. The Church, after she gave you the Holy Scripture, never stopped in her teaching authority. So it is true that there are things that the Church teaches that do not have a direct description in the scripture. For example, the exact manner of worship, veneration of saints, social teaching in the modern world are all things outside of the immediate scope of the Scripture. However, if the scripture teaches something, so does the Catholic Church. Our beliefs are in harmony with the scripture. The Protestant nonsense, however, proclaims itself a consequence of the scripture alone. Yet, the foundational Protestant doctrines of Sola Fide and Sola Scriptura are themselves not in the scripture and in fact contradict it. They are traditions of men Jesus warned against. It is indeed quite comical.