Recently, a friend wrote and asked about the Catholic practice of "praying for the dead" closely linked to the doctrine of Purgatory. I answered and did not send this out. Today, another person asked the same question, so I thought I should send this out.

Prayer for the Dead

Thanks for your questions concerning this practice. I will divide the email into a couple components:

1. The case FOR prayer for the dead from the Catholic perspective: I submit this based on writings I believe to be very consistent with Catholic contemporary theology, and want to represent it fairly without comment in this section. I used liberally the Catholic Encyclopedia and a number of articles I could quickly put my hands on. I hope they are clear and helpful.

2. My best response as to why I DO NOT pray for the dead: Here I want to be careful to be gracious, since I believe that God is very much at work in many churches and theologies, not simply my own. I believe strongly what I believe, and will try to back it up Biblically, but I do not want to be "in the face" of anyone. People are not simply their subgroup "Catholics" or "Protestants", they are people that God loves and Jesus died for. I trust my words will carry a spirit of Grace.

I. THE CASE FOR PRAYING FOR THE DEAD

The teaching of prayer for the dead is historically linked to the teaching concerning Purgatory. The growth of both teachings are based on:

1. The teaching of the "communion of the saints" found in the Apostle's Creed and other historical writings of the church. The Catholic approach to these words is that they are the "unity of all believers, both in Heaven, Purgatory and earth". In other words, we have early references in church history that believers are linked together. Their best understanding of that includes those in eternity, and they include those in Purgatory because they have accepted the idea of "another chance" to follow God after physical death.

2. The teaching of Purgatory, which states that people will be again give the chance to "work through" the issues they could not on the earth. It relies heavily on the idea that God accepts one on the basis of their work for him. Note the Council of Trent that said: (Sess. XXV), "that purgatory exists, and that the souls detained therein are helped by the suffrages of the faithful, but especially by the acceptable sacrifice of the altar". A good word on this is found in the teaching of Michael Palaeologus at the Second Ecumenical Council of Florence in 1439: "[We define] likewise, that if the truly penitent die in the love of God, before they have made satisfaction by worthy fruits of penance for their sins of commission and omission, their souls are purified by purgatorial pains after death; and that for relief from these pains they are benefited by the suffrages of the faithful in this life, that is, by Masses, prayers, and almsgiving, and by the other offices of piety usually performed by the faithful for one another according to the practice [instituta] of the Church".

Note: Catholic theologians DO TEACH that some go to Hell without the possibility of redemption in Purgatory: "To those who die in willful, unrepented mortal sin, which implies a deliberate turning away from God as the last end and ultimate good of man, Catholic teaching holds out no hope of eventual salvation by a course of probation after death. Eternal exile from the face of God is, by their own choice, the fate of such unhappy souls, and prayers are unavailing to reverse that awful doom. This was the explicit teaching of Christ, the meek and merciful Saviour, and the Church can but repeat the Master's teaching." (Catholic Encyclopedia)

3. The "suffrages" for the dead are defined as formal supplications (prayers), and works by the living that may be offered for the spiritual benefit of those who have died. In other words, the Catholic church teaches that I can both pray for the dead and work to help them get from Purgatory to Heaven quicker.

Catholic theologian offer the following evidence for the practice (though since it was agreed to at a church council and supported by the Papacy, there is little need to "defend" the idea as such. The evidences cited are:

1. The Bible: The Catholic Encyclopedia says " As we shall presently see, there is no clear and explicit warrant for prayers for the dead in the Scriptures recognized by Protestants as canonical, while they do not admit the Divine authority of extra-Scriptural traditions. Catholics are in a better position." In other words, the teaching is not found explicitly in the Bible books that all accept, it is derived from Apocryphal books of the Bible that are not universally accepted as God's Word. The Catholic Church teaches these books are valuable and deem the words regarding prayer for the dead to be true.

2. Arguments from Apocryphal Scripture (2 Maccabbees): Omitting some passages in the Old Testament which are sometimes invoked, but which are too vague and uncertain in their reference to be urged in proof (v.g. Tobias, iv, 18; Ecclus., vii, 37; etc.), it is enough to notice here the classical passage in 2 Maccabees, 12:40-46.

When Judas and his men came to take away for burial the bodies of their brethren who had fallen in the battle against Gorgias, "they found under the coats of the slain some of the donaries of the idols of Jamnia, which the law forbiddeth to the Jews: so that all plainly saw, that for this cause they were slain. Then they all blessed the just judgment of the Lord, who had discovered the things that were hidden. And so betaking themselves to prayers, they besought him, that the sin which had been committed might be forgotten...And making a gathering, he [Judas] sent twelve [al. two] drachms of silver to Jerusalem for sacrifice to be offered for the sins of the dead, thinking well and religiously concerning the resurrection (for if he had not hoped that they that were slain should rise again, it would have seemed superfluous and vain to pray for the dead), and because he considered that they who had fallen asleep in godliness, had great grace laid up for them. It is therefore a holy and wholesome thought to pray for the dead, that they may be loosed from sins."

Passing over the well-known passage, I Cor., iii, 14 sq., on which an argument for purgatory may be based, attention may be called to another curious text in the same Epistle (xv, 29), where St. Paul argues thus in favor of the resurrection: "Otherwise what shall they do that are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not again at all? Why are they then baptized form them?" Even assuming that the practice here referred to was superstitious, and that St. Paul merely uses it as the basis of an argumentum ad hominem, the passage at least furnishes historical evidence of the prevalence at the time of belief in the efficacy of works for the dead; and the Apostle's reserve in not reprobating this particular practice is more readily intelligible if we suppose him to have recognized the truth of the principle of which it was merely an abuse. But it is probable that the practice in question was something in itself legitimate, and to which the Apostle gives his tacit approbation. In his Second Epistle to Timothy (i, 16-18; iv, 19) St. Paul speaks of Onesiphorus in a way that seems obviously to imply that the latter was already dead: "The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus" -- as to a family in need of consolation. Then, after mention of loyal services rendered by him to the imprisoned Apostle at Rome, comes the prayer for Onesiphorus himself, "The Lord grant unto him to find mercy of the Lord in that day" (the day of judgment); finally, in the salutation, "the household of Onesiphorus" is mentioned once more, without mention of the man himself. The question is, what had become of him? Was he dead, as one would naturally infer from what St. Paul writes? Or had he for any other cause become separated permanently from his family, so that prayer for them should take account of present needs while prayers for him looked forward to the Day of Judgment? Or could it be that he was still at Rome when the Apostle wrote, or gone elsewhere for a prolonged absence from home? The first is by far the easiest and most natural hypothesis; and if it be admitted, we have here an instance of prayer by the Apostle for the soul of a deceased benefactor.

3. Arguments from Church Tradition: The traditional evidence in favour of prayers for the dead, which has been preserved -

in monumental inscriptions (especially those of the catacombs): We find in those places inscriptions written on behalf of the dead ones that say things like "May the dead one have peace, the good (i.e. eternal salvation), light, refreshment, life, eternal life, union with God, with Christ, and with the angels and saints". Catholic theologians interpret these as prayers for the dead ones.

in the ancient liturgies: Some writings of the eastern Church from the first five centuries contain "the commemoration of the faithful departed in the Mass, with a prayer for peace, light, refreshment and the like, and in many cases expressly for the remission of sins and the effacement of sinful stains". The following, from the Syriac Liturgy of St. James, may be quoted as a typical example: "we commemorate all the faithful dead who have died in the true faith...We ask, we entreat, we pray Christ our God, who took their souls and spirits to Himself, that by His many compassions He will make them worthy of the pardon of their faults and the remission of their sins" (Syr. Lit. S. Jacobi, ed. Hammond, p. 75).

in Christian literature generally, "Acta Joannis", composed about A.D. 160-170, that at that time anniversaries of the dead were commemorated by the application of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass (Lipsius and Bonnet, "Acta Apost. Apocr.", I, 186). The same fact is witnessed by the "Canons of Hippolytus" (Ed. Achelis, p. 106), by Tertullian (De Cor. Mil., iii, P. L., II, 79), and by many later writers. Tertullian also testifies to the regularity of the practice of praying privately for the dead (De Monogam., x, P.L., II, 942). There are numerous other examples of the practice.St. Chrysotom does not hesitate to speak of it as a "law laid down by the Apostles" (Hom., iii, in Philipp., i, 4, P.G., LXII, 203).

In the final analysis, the Catholic theologian defends the practice on the basis of 2 Maccabbees, Jewish tradition, funeral monuments, and the practice of the church of the past. They do NOT cite the practice as specifically Biblical, but that is of no consequence. The Catholic church holds to an equal authority for the Church Councils to that of the written Word. In other words, there are multiple authorities: The Papal Edict; The Bible; The traditions of the Church. All of these are the effective basis for truth.

II. MY REASONS FOR NOT PRAYING FOR THE DEAD

1. I do not subscribe to the view that church tradition is an authority equal to that of the Bible. The same church authorities mentioned above clearly were both used of God on some occasions and terribly wrong on others. One need only look at the words of Church councils concerning Anti-semetism and Jewish hatred to illustrate they were not always right.

2. Jewish tradition, despite the claim of the Catholic theologians, does NOT support prayer for the dead. Ask any rabbi, he will tell you that these were collective prayers for the "children of Israel" as in the case of 2 Maccabees, not specific prayers for those who died. Such a practice was very foreign to Hebrew thinking and cannot be supported in the Talmud or Mishnah.

3. The Bible doesn't teach this. If it were an important doctrine, truly able to help those who passed on to alleviate their pain and suffering, would it not be a prominent teaching somewhere in an Epistle? Why is their no clear command anywhere in Scripture to do it if it is of any importance?

4. The funerary monuments only show what people hoped for their loved ones. They should not be seen as having any authority in doctrine, they were words of grieving family members.

5. Ancient liturgies included a number of practices that were not in harmony with the Scripture. Coming out of the first century there was not one Christianity, there were Christianities in various communities, some not very harmonious with the teachings of the Word. In other words, because they are OLD words, does not mean they are CORRECT words. Something is judged true doctrinally, in my view, if it is found in the timeless truths of the Scriptures.

Hope that helps, R