Unfortunately, it's a practice that had been engaged in for centuries by the CC. Just how do you think they amassed this priceless fortune? The real estate alone is worth hundreds of billions.
"Indulgences do not limit time spent in Purgatory. Purgatory is not temporal (you have to be dead to get there), therefore, there is no "time" in Purgatory.
"These claims are commonly part of the mythologies created by folks that don't know no better."
"Myths"?? I beg to differ as a former Catholic.
Purgatory? Now we're talking myth. But even so, in the not too distant past monetary Indulgences certainly were encouraged in leiu of less "suffering."
Oddly, there seems not to be ANY authority who has ever definitively explained the place, process and terms of entry OR exit.
If you can shed some light on the matter, I'd appreciate it....Btw, I'm not an F16 pilot.
"Just how do you think they amassed this priceless fortune? The real estate alone is worth hundreds of billions."
As the font of Western civilization, the treasures of the Catholic Church are priceless. These treasures are works of faith, love and devotion over 2000 years. Certainly, none would be so crass as to imply that Michaelangelo created his Pieta because he wanted to lessen time in purgatory or spring souls or some such nonsense. Certainly not.
The mythologies concerning indulgences/purgatory are commonly repeated in many circles. Their repetition certainly does not make them true.
The Catholic Church has never, ever taught that indulgences lessened time in purgatory.
This is a common myth that is in part due to the way that indulgences were categorized, in the past. Old prayer cards (and such) used to be categorized using the monastic days of penance. Folks that didn't know no better assumed that the days referred to on the back of grannies prayer card referred to the days that one would be spared of fiery sufferin' in purgy-tory if one said the pious prayer. We all know what happens when one assumes.
In my experience, former Catholics are notoriously unreliable as a source of authentic teachings of the Catholic Church.
I'll try to shed some light on Purge-a-tory in plain Evanenglish.
Purgatory is the place where the saints go to be perfectly conformed to Christ. It is a place where the grace of God strips away any last remants of selfishness so that the saints of God may blaze with the glory of God with the heavenly host. Purgatory isn't necessary. Some Christians leave this earth without any trace of selfishness and go immediately to the throne. God makes provision for the rest, out of love, to complete their perfection begun on earth and not finished. That provision is called Purgatory.
Let's all hug and hold hands. I feel a song coming on.
Generosity from the faithful and great patrons. In a lot of places, churches and schools were built incurring great monetary debts that took decades to pay off. And then there is the maintenance. The parish that I belong to happens to be the cathedral of my archdiocese. Cleaning the ceiling - a series of masterpiece mosiacs installed over 61 years - costs about $500K to clean. Fortunately, that doesn't have to happen very often, but soot from candles does have to be cleaned off.
Where does the cash come from? We all write checks. we have a development department (incidentally the current practices in the world of development were formulated by one Joseph Cardinal Ritter) that raises money constantly for these purposes.
Incidentally, there was a recent article posted here on the Vatican archives and told of all the letters from the great Renaissance masters who were working on St. Peter's and in other places in the Vatican to the wealthy patrons asking for cash to keep projects going. All of those collections are kept in trust for future generations to be inspired and see what great passion gives the world.