Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Fun Fact: One theory on the origins of Valentine's Day is that it was an attempt by the early Christian church to incorporate Lupercalia, an Roman festival in mid-February celebrating fertility.
Chaim sent me this interesting Slate article on Catholic indulgences. I'm still not sure what purgatory is since it's church doctrine says it's no longer a specific place. Maybe it's like a bureaucratic waiting room where you take a number and wait to be judged. Only it's apparently pretty hot as well.
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I don't know how much of what I was taught in Catholic schools matches with official Church doctrine, but purgatory was a real place, just as real and heaven and hell. In fact, the vast majority of people would spend some time in purgatory awaiting heaven when they died... only a very select few went straight to heaven or straight to hell. Limbo, however, had been abolished by Vatican II. (How do you say, "Whoops, we were wrong! Your unbaptized dead baby is NOT suffering eternal torment after all.")
Anyway, now I can't help thinking that indulgences are a dressed up version of magical incantations.
Oh right! I was confusing limbo and purgatory. I'm a bad catholic :)
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