I appreciate your trying to explain the obvious contradiction in your belief system.
But your explanation isn't exactly accurate. The question was: "Do the souls in purgatory pray each other out of purgatory?"
And annalex' answer, in contradiction to your own, was: "No, the souls in purgatory lack the free will to pray and so they cannot reduce their stay."
It seems disingenuous of you now to say annalex was speaking about their own prayers for themselves, when clearly the question was regarding praying for others.
But you have shown us a good example of how to try and evade uncomfortable errors.
A council has not officially defined the extent of what the souls in Purgatory are capable of doing for the rest of the Body.
Perhaps that's because there is no Scripture to support the idea of purgatory and thus it's difficult to defend.
FWIW, if someone or something wanted to keep people enslaved to a bureaucracy, I cannot think of a better plan than to tell them there's a place they have to endure after death before they see the Lord's face. And the length of this deprivation is determined by how "good" a person is and how much money he gives to that bureaucracy.
Ingenious.
I see you are not convinced. Perhaps I should remind you of the caveat that applies to all of us here - NONE of us are the official representatives of our respective Faiths regarding official teachings. It is quite feasible that I or Annalex, or both, may be mistaken WHENEVER we write something on the Catholic faith. In the same way, you could feasibly be mistaken on a belief of Calvin. I had presumed that you realized this. Just because I and Annalex superficially disagree doesn't mean that the Catholic faith has not decisively answered to the affirmative or the negative on a question. Nor do I expect a Protestant to be aware of every fine point within their own theological system.
With that said, I cannot say what Annalex had in mind when he wrote what he did. I interpreted it the way I have explained, and I still think it is a legitimate explanation. He can speak for himself. I got my information from "Fundamentals of Catholic Dogma", as, quite frankly, I didn't know the answer to P-Marlowe's question. It is not THE authoritive official word on the matter, but I have found Ott to be reliable in the past. I certainly could have given the wrong answer...
If there is any errors, it is not with the Church, but with our attempt to answer the question. I apologize for any errors that may have crept into my writings. But realize I am not the Pope or a Bishop, I am not a professional theologian. If I err, it is because of my lack of knowledge on a subject, not because suddenly, the Catholic Church is wrong...
Regards